Police upset Army to meet Wapda in volleyball final
Bureau Report

LAHORE—Underdogs Police caused the biggest upset of the 43rd National Mens volleyball championship defeating title holders Pakistan Army (3-1) 25-21,24-26, 25-19,25-23 in the semi finals here on Monday at Wapda Sports Complex.
Wapda which signalled the first upset of the premier championship against the same team in the last match of quarter final round, halted the unbeaten run of NWFP with a splendid straight sets victory in 55 minutes with a scoreline of 25-12,25-19,30-28 and set a final clash with Police.
The cops greatly inspired by Wapda’s shocking victory over Army, were in right direction for a similar repeat and their efforts yielded desired results in the 85 minutes long battle, though they lost the second set.
Army was not expecting that kind of classic game from Police which excelled in all departments of the game to end the long time supremacy of a greater opponent.
Naseer Ahmad who is playing in Dubai league was the top performer from Police and he was the focus of attention with his all round performance. Muhammad Zaman ,Sajid Iqbal and Mohib Rasool extended brilliant support.
Army had a nightmare start when they lost the opening set in which Police put up top of the art game enlarging worries of their fancied opponent. Army made repeated efforts to salvage its pride, though locked the scores on occasions but succumbed under the pressure in final stages of the set.
Surprisingly Police landed into trouble in the second set and their glittering performance faded away with Army in control with lovely smashes and volleys. The loss served a lesson in many ways to Police and they set aside the sour memories coming up with improved attacking game and alert in defence.
They maintained a similar pattern of game to expose flaws in Army’s defence and coordination. Once off the track, Army found it hard to get on winning ways as Police denied them any such opportunity to bounce back and ended their sporadic brave moves with perfect placing and killing of the ball.
Chairman, Pakistan Volleyball Federation ,Chaudhary Mohammad Yaqoob was the chief guest on the occasion and praised the performance of the winning team. In the second semi final Wapda exhibited peak performance to outshine NWFP which made a desperate last minute effort in the third set by making some useful impressions. But it was too late on part of NWFP as Wapda remained cool and were fully composed to tackle storm like situation with greater anticipation, coordination and agility.
For the thrill of a big audience, Wapda’s spikers jolted NWFP with severe smashes and unreturned service game. Farooq Khan, Zahre Khan and Imran Sultan were a step ahead in attacks and defence and they cut down a several possible rallies with timely placing as NWFP players were ready for such moves.
Amil Khan and Nazir Khan Jr helped NWFP in gaining some relief with their skills game, specially in the third set.—Agencies