DUBAI, January 14: Defending champions India opened their campaign in the third Rashid International Volleyball Tournament with a superb 3-0 win over Poland here last night.Displaying clever variations in their net play and better spiking skills, the Indians won 15-2, 15-11, 15-9 against the young Poles, who played far below their potential.Earlier, in the opening match of the eight-day tournament, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Seniors chalked out an easy 15-4, 15-8, 15-8 victory over the Phillipines in pool A.Poland's under-20 team had won the World Youth Championships in Bahrain last year, but none of the players from that side has been included in the squad for this tournament.India, who have fielded almost the same team that retained the championship last year, were superior to the Poles in almost all departments of the game.Throughout the match, they never appeared under pressure as they combined well in position switches and mid-court defending and in the short and flat spikes to catch their opponents off guard.Ravikant Verma provided the main inspiration for the Indians. His powerful overhead serving, which enabled them to race ahead during crucial moments, and interceptions at the net delighted the Indian supporters at the Al Shabab Indoor Stadium. He was deservedly named player of the match.Powerful serving and neat spiking from the routine dummy jump and some fast flat pushes saw India racing to a 7-0 lead in the first set.Skipper Surjit Singh and vastly improved Ashish Arora punched and blocked brilliantly at the net while Vinod Raj, the smallest man on the court, and Manoharan, the biggest, saw to it that the mid-court and flank areas were kept guarded whenever the Poles went on the attack.Poland came back strongly in the second and third sets and kept pace with India, with Pioter Lipinski, Pawel Maciejewicz and skipper Bartlomiej coming good in their offensive play.The scores remained tied till change of serves at 8-8 in the second set but the Indians had a cool head in Venkateswara Rao. He managed to outfox the well-built Poles with disguised drops at the net and from mid-court play while going in for leaping smashes.In the third set, the Indians were initially tied down by an improved Poland. But once they pulled away from a 9-9 stalemate, when service changed hands six times, India never looked back.
