Kolkata Thunderbolts to take on Ahmedabad Defenders in Prime Volleyball League Final

After 23 matches of intense competition, the RuPay Prime Volleyball League will witness the Ahmedabad Defenders and Kolkata Thunderbolts fight it out for the trophy at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.

The Ahmedabad Defenders defeated Hyderabad Black Hawks 4-1 in the first Semi-Final on Thursday, while Kolkata Thunderbolts took down Calicut Heroes 3-0 in the second Semi-Final on Friday.

The Kolkata Thunderbolts made a fantastic comeback in the third set of their Semi-Final match against Calicut Heroes on Friday. Speaking about the comeback, Kolkata Captain Ashwal Rai said, "When we were 1-8 down, our coaches told us to stay calm since we were already 2-0 up in the match. They also told us that the set is not over until a team reaches 15 points and if we keep trying then we will keep winning points.

"So, we went into the court with confidence and decided that we will not give up until the set is over. We won the set because of our team work and coordination. We did something that seemed impossible and we will go into the Final with a lot of confidence after our Semi-Final win."

Ahmedabad Defenders Captain Muthusamy expressed during a virtual press conference on Saturday that his team will look to improve its defensive game.

"We have coordinated very well as a team. We didn't think about the Final at the beginning of the competition; we took it one game at a time. Now we are here and hope we can continue to play the same way in the Final too. We will play according to the strategies set by our coaches. I feel we have to improve our defensive game. Hopefully, we can rectify our mistakes and put up a good performance in the Final," he said.

Prime Volleyball League CEO Joy Bhattacharjya, who was also in attendance during the virtual press conference, shared his thoughts about the tournament so far: "It's been absolutely amazing. We knew that the quality of volleyball will be very high, but the thing that surprised us was the evenness of the teams. Many matches have been decided on 14-14 & 14-15 and matches have been decided on one Super Serve or one good smash and that was really heartening to see."

Watch RuPay Prime Volleyball League Final – Kolkata Thunderbolts vs Ahmedabad Defenders - Live on SONY TEN 1 (English), SONY TEN 3 (Hindi), SONY TEN 4 (Tamil & Telugu) & SONY TEN 2 (Malayalam) channels at 6:30 pm IST on 27th February 2022.