PVL 2022: Calicut Heroes beat Hyderabad Black Hawks to enter semis

Calicut Heroes dished out a high quality fare in a must-win match, defeating Hyderabad Black Hawks 15-14, 15-10, 15-14, 15-14, 15-9 to make it to the last four stage of Prime Volleyball League on Monday.

Calicut Heroes (red) and Hyderabad Black Hawks in action in the Rupay Prime Volleyball League championship in Hyderabad on Monday.

Calicut Heroes dished out a high quality fare in a must-win match, defeating Hyderabad Black Hawks 15-14, 15-10, 15-14, 15-14, 15-9 to make it to the last four stage of the Rupay Prime Volleyball League championship at GMC Balayogi Stadium (Gachibowli) here on Monday.

It was Hawks who had a slender 5-3 lead in the first set but service faults proved costly for them as Heroes came back strongly thanks to the ever-consistent Jerome Vinith, who was unstoppable with his spiking prowess from acute angles.

With double Olympian and 'player of the match' David Lee, who was outstanding in attack and defence, and Sujan Lal making their presence felt, Jerome had the liberty to go for his trademark smashes.

Hawks was in the first set thanks primarily to S.V. Guru Prasanth, Amit Gulia with Vipul Kumar setting up beautifully for those smashes.

Hawks had a chance to win the first set after Sujan Lal of Heroes served out to make the scoreline read 14-all. But, Vignesh finished off in style for Heroes with a terrific smash.

In the second set, Heroes thrived on the brilliance of Jerome and Lee with Ajith Lal and Mujeeb often coming up with splendid double blocks to thwart the rival attack.

Though George Antony, Amit Gulia and Guru Prasanth of Hawks scored a few points with their smashes, Vignesh came up with a telling spike to clinch the super point at 14-10 for Heroes.

In the crucial third set, Heroes broke away after the scores were tied 9-all, thanks to the combination of Abhil, Ajith and Jerome.

There was drama with Jerome serving out at 12-13, then Mujeeb helping Heroes level the scores 13-all and was delightful to see Hawks’ star spiker Amit Gulia smash one out to make it 13-14.

Hawks came back into the game with Luis Antonio’s great placement to level the scores 14-all.

But Abhil Krishnan positioned himself beautifully as Jerome set up for the former to finish off in style with a 5-0 score against Hawks.

This was Heroes' third win in six matches while Hawks suffered their third loss in six matches.