FIVB-News, Berlin, Germany, June 9, 2012 – World No. 23 Czech Republic downed No. 30 India in straight sets (25-19, 25-13, 25-23) on the second day of the FIVB Men’s World Qualification Tournament held at the Max-Schmeling hall in Berlin, Germany on Saturday. The victory raised Czech’s record to 1-2, while India dropped to 0-2.
Jan Stokr (22 points) and Karel Linz (18 points) spearheaded a balanced Czech Republic attack in the match that featured both great individual and team play. From India Singh Sube led the scorers (8 pts) followed by Kumar Sanjay and Captain Singh Gurinder (7 pts).
The Czechs lost their opening match to Cuba on Friday, while the Indians were defeated by Germany the same day.
This is the second victory for the Czechs in two matches against India after they beat them 3-0 in their only previous encounter at the 1952 World Champs.
The Czech Republic had the better start in the game. The Indians didn’t get daunted by the Czechs small advantage though and made up to 8-8 before they gained their first advance at 9-8. However it was the Eastern European team which played more efficient in the running set, especially because of a better defense and strong attacks. The set was closed by a missing service of India´s Singh Sube.
The Czech´s continued playing sovereign in the second set. India’s attacks were blocked repeatedly and similar to the first game on Friday it was Stokr whose smashes put India´s defense under pressure. India tried to fight back but still couldn´t keep pace with the world ranked 23rd who won the set with 25-13 due to a great effort.
In the third set the spectators got to see India playing much stronger than in the forerun one. Top Indian scorer Sube succeeded bringing his team back in the game so that India got in the lead at 12-11. The Czech´s attempts to prevent the set loss finally made an impact with retaking the lead again at 23-22 and the Czech Republic closed the match in three sets.
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