TN gear up for tougher battles

Chennai: In biting cold conditions of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, the Tamil Nadu volleyball team is incubating the idea of winning the senior national title. Tamil Nadu coach P. Sundaram said his boys are on course after they posted two straightforward wins in their group.

The coach said the real battle starts with Wednesday’s match against Uttarakhand. The winners of the TN-Uttarakhand match will top the pool and get weak opponents in the quarterfinals. Sundaram is eager to see how his players perform against a tough team.

Uttarakhand’s record at the nationals is poor because the talent-rich state isn’t known to prepare earnestly for the event. There is, however, newfound determination in the Uttarakhand ranks this time, according to Sundaram. “The Volleyball Federation of India president is from the hill state and Uttarakhand are playing the first national championship after he took over the reins. I’m not surprised to see the spring in their step,” he added.

In the other pool, reigning champions Kerala and Railways are set to finish 1-2. Kerala got the better of Railways in a thrilling five setter on Monday. The fighting performance of Railways impressed Sundaram. “We will be meeting either Kerala or Railways in the semifinals and I don’t see much difference between the two,” the coach said.

If Tamil Nadu beat Uttarakhand to finish on top of their group, they will face Railways in the last four. Coming second will mean a meeting with Kerala in the semis. Based on the matches in the league stage, Sundaram said it’s clear that Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand Kerala and Railways will enter the semifinals.

Sundaram is happy with the way Tamil Nadu are shaping up. “We lost a set against Punjab in our opening match. Punjab are a good team and they played well. We were tentative because the conditions were new. The first match is always difficult in any tournament. Against Services on Monday, we were in our element from start to finish. The team combined well,” he added.

The coach tested his bench strength in the Services match. The likes of attacker Anandraj and universal Selvaprabhu got some time in the middle. G.E. Sridharan and A. Venkatesan, TN’s previous coaches, aren’t known to tinker with a winning combination but Sundaram believes in getting every member of the squad battle ready. “I want each member of the team to be sharp because you never know when his services will be required for us. We have four tough matches ahead, assuming that we will play the final,” Sundaram said.

The Tamil Nadu coach will have a great opportunity to assess his team’s strengths and weaknesses when they take on Uttarakhand, who have established players such as Mandeep Singh, Navjit Singh and Ranjit Singh in their ranks. In a way, TN’s national campaign starts from Wednesday evening.