Defending champions, KZN brushed aside challenges from the North West Province in straight sets (3-0) to square up against the hard -hitting team from Limpopo on day 2 of the NVL. Those who watched the KZN lads in devastating form against North West would have no doubt that the defending champions were on track to retain the coveted NVL silverware.
The court was set alight when Quwin Naidoo’s KZN locked horns with Jonas Motlhobi’s Limpopo to stake a place in the semi-final stage of the 2022 NVL. Fiery attacking exchanges and crucial blocking were the hall marks of the bruising encounter. While Limpopo relied heavily on Jonas Motlhobi, their star attacker to score quick points, KZN had the luxury of using their attackers from every position on the court to keep the score board ticking. In the first set in particular attacker Hinesh Purbhoo was a constant thorn in the side of the Limpopo lads as his quick cross court attacking befuddled the blockers at the net.
When the Limpopo cover players struggled in receiving KZN’s well placed power service the former went on to lose valuable points. Despite this set back Limpopo led on two occasions when the scores were at 19-18 and 21-20 respectively. The opening set was poised on a knife’s edge in favour of KZN at 24-23 when Limpopo’s Jonas Motlhobi’s ‘nervous’ service failed to cross the net into the opposition’s court.
KZN expressed their joy for winning the breath-taking set by a 25-23 margin.
A sparkling display of well disguised sets by mercurial playmaker Quwin Naidoo put pressure on the Limpopo lads as they had to work doubly hard to contain KZN’s rampant attack force. The situation became dire for Limpopo when poor service reception reared its ugly head once more. KZN’s middle blockers Yuvir Ramjit and Kiveshan Bhagwandeen took care of matters at the net and equally blasted their way past the opposition blockers to post a 25-19 win to take a 2-0 lead.
Refusing to take the ‘foot off the pedal’, the KZN team took an unassailable 20-6 lead in double quick time in the 3 rd set and went on to wrap proceedings with a 25-9 thrashing of the team from Limpopo.
Released by
DONOVAN NAIR
VSA SG
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