Chennai fielded their strongest line-up yesterday, including Aswani Sasi Kumar and Gayathri Rajendhran, in a tough match against the much stronger Hitachi team.

Chennai trailed Hitachi 6-2 in the first set, but they upped their tempo and the hard hitting Geeta Kalinidhi and Aswani Sasi took turns piercing the Japanese defence with spectacular spikes to win four successive points and close the margin to 6-6.

However Hitachi, buoyed by drum-beating supporters from the company's local factory, tightened their defence and spiking to took the first set 25-17.

The Indian team received a big round of applause in the second set when their players came out strongly. Chennai's splendid form almost turned the tide of the match their way. The Indians needed only one point to wrap up the set with the score at 25-24, but allowed Hitachi to fight back. The Japanese then won the gruelling set 28-26.

In the third set Chennai made too many unforced spiking and blocking errors and Hitachi cruised to victory with a 25-13 win to take the match.

"I think we played much better than yesterday against Thailand," said Indian coach Mahamaya Samaddar. "It's a pity we trained for only 35 days for this tournament.

"If we trained a bit longer, I think my girls could do a better job than this. Another important factor for our loss here is that while training in India, the balls are totally different from what we are using in Thailand.

"Here, the balls are softer and lighter. We find it a bit difficult to control the ball. If we became more acquainted with these type of balls, I'm sure we would enjoy better luck here," she added.

Preechachan

Wiriyanupappong

The Nation