Volleyball
"We made too many errors," says Vinit Kumar after Kolkata Thunderbolt's loss to Calicut Heroes
"If we didn't do that then we could have easily won the game by the fourth set," said Kolkata's Vinit Kumar after the defeat.
Vinit Kumar (Source: Prime Volleyball League/Twitter)
The Kolkata Thunderbolts faced their first defeat in the 2023 season of the Prime Volleyball League after a closely-contested match with the Calicut Heroes. The Heroes won the match 3-2, but it could have gone either side's way.
"We made too many errors in the match. If we didn't do that then we could have easily won the game by the fourth set," said Kolkata's Vinit Kumar after the defeat.
It was Calicut who started the game as the better team, and was at one point four points ahead of Kolkata in the first set. At 9-12 to Calicut, Kolkata did well to get a Super Point to make it 11-12, but the Heroes continued to collect consecutive points.
The Thunderbolts came back really close to taking the first set after a Super Serve levelled the scores 14-14, but Calicut made sure they got the lead in the match by winning the set.
Second set belonged to the Thunderbolts, especially Rahul Kumar, who was piling on Super Serves on to the Heroes. While Kolkata did concede some unnecessary points towards the end of the set, they comfortably won it 15-7.
Third set is where things started to get heated. Cody Caldwell was involved in a contentious point and was seen furiously pleading his innocence with the referee, but the man on the high chair wouldn't budge.
There was even a score discrepancy where the score keepers had forgotten to change it in favour of the Heroes, which greatly irked Jerome Vinith.
"We are working hard, before the season, before the match. I understand that the referee cannot be perfect every time, but it's a crucial point. It's natural for a sportsperson to get angry. I always try to avoid getting angry, otherwise I keep calm," said a smiling Jerome after their win.
Towards the end of the third set, it was a game of catch-up for Kolkata but it was Calicut which took the lead in the match and won the set 15-11.
The fourth set couldn't have been tighter with Rahul spiking, Sandoval of Calicut blocking, but it was only natural that Kolkata won the set 15-13 to take the match to a decider.
It looked in the final moments of the game that Kolkata would run away with the match after toiling hard. Unfortunately, it was Caldwell who made a mistake at 13-10 to Kolkata to give Calicut the Super Point and bring it to 13-12.
From there, it was easy pickings as Jerome finished the match off in a calm and collected spike to win the game 3-2.
