Hyderabad Black Hawks defeated the Chennai Blitz 10-15, 15-14, 15-19, 12-15, 15-11 in the second season of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League powered by A23 at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad. Superstar Vijay Deverakonda, who is the co-owner of the Hyderabad Black Hawks team was also in attendance to witness the thrilling contest. SV Guru Prashanth was named the Player of the match.
Jobin Varghese showed a fiery spirit straight off the bat, making his presence known with fiery attacks and strong blocks. Akhin’s presence breathed new life into Chennai’s attacks.
Naveen’s smart attacks from the outside lines kept causing troubles for the Hawks, but Guru kept bringing things back to level pegging with his spikes. Hemanth’s magic with the serves kept Hyderabad in the match. Guru found space to go for hard spikes and Hyderabad took control of the match.
The miscommunications between Chennai players led to errors from Akhin and Hyderabad made the most of it. Lal Sujan started feeding the middle and Trent O’Dea came to life to shut down Chennai’s resistance.
But just when it looked like the hosts will run away with the contest, libero Ramanathan and Prasanna began setting up Akhin for spikes. Pulling off a double duty, with serves and blocks from the middle, Akhin brought his team back into the contest.
With the match going right down to the wire, it was a real test of nerves for both sides. Hyderabad faltered with their receptions as Renato tested the opposition with powerful serves. But the two-man defence line of Saurabh Maan and John Joseph tackled Akhin and made sensational blocks in the final few minutes to help Hyderabad pick a sensational win.
Ahmedabad Defenders will be up against Chennai Blitz at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on the fifth day of the Hyderabad leg of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League at 1900 hrs onwards IST on Sunday, 19th February 2023.
