Shining bright: Defenders kept their nerve in a tense final.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
R. Angamuthu, who took up volleyball rather late, led from the front as Ahmedabad Defenders fought off a fighting Bengaluru Torpedoes 3-2 and won the Prime Volleyball League title at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Sunday.
The 27-year-old Tiruchi-born universal, who played a big role in Defenders’ shocking win over Calicut Heroes in the semifinal, dominated the final with his fiery crosscourt smashes.
He had strong support from attackers S. Nandagopal, S. Santhosh and Iranian middle-blocker Daniel Moatazedi, and setter A. Muthusamy too played his part.
Defenders’ backcourt, too, looked a settled one as libero Srikanth performed with confidence.
Defenders appeared to be cruising to an easy win when they won the first two sets comfortably, but T.R. Sethu inspired a strong Torpedoes comeback. His serves and smashes rattled Defenders as Torpedoes raced to a 6-0 lead in the third set.
But the team almost threw it all away as Defenders levelled at 11 and took the lead at 16-15 with Danial, Angamuthu and Santhosh’s smart attack.
The scores were all square at 18 but two errors from Defenders — Nandagopal messed up on his serve and attacker Santosh’s smash sailed out — gave the set and a new lease of life to Torpedoes.
Torpedoes were down 8-10 in the fourth but bounced back with a super point call. When Angamuthu’s smash went out, they went ahead 12-10.
Shortly after, Angamuthu’s smash was blocked by Sethu and an ace from Mujeeb helped Torpedoes take the final to the decider.
Defenders raced to a 12-7 lead in the decider when Santhosh’s serve danced over the net.
Angamuthu then produced a crosscourt smash that turned out to be the winner.
The result:
Ahmedabad Defenders bt Bengaluru Torpedoes 15-7, 15-10, 18-20, 13-15, 15-10.