Abu Dhabi: Ahalia Exchange lifted the Jimmy George Memorial Volleyball tournament for the UAE Xchange Centre for the fourth time but not before being stretched to the full by a fighting Geo Electricals, Sharjah at hosts Kerala Social Centre courts on Thursday night.
Winners in 2002, 03 and 2005, Ahalia staged a brilliant rally to score a 22-25, 25-29, 23-25, 25-29 and 15-11 win over Geo Electricals in one of the tightest finishes seen here.
Though Ahalia had beaten Geo in the group stage, Thursday night was a new match and the final. And the new entrants from Sharjah, who did have a fair share of Indian stars in the ranks, gave the hot favourites a run for their money.
Experience
Indian players Vipin George, Sunil Kumar, Abdul Azeez along with K.P Shaheen and George got Geo Electricals to the perfect start with an attacking strategy. Geo took the opening set and later also took the third set to establish a 2-1 lead and the packed court were looking at an upset on the cards.
Ahalia, who looked a bit disjointed in the early part of the final, had to bring in the combined international experience of their Indian quartet Kapil Dev, Sanjay Kumar, G Pradeep and P. S Srikanth.
The narrow 23-25 loss in the third set spurred the stars on and they managed to halt the Sharjah team with a higher percentage of smashes finding their mark. They leveled 2-2 with a 25-19 win and the final went into the deciding fifth set of 15 points.
However, Ahalia were well served by the big-smashing Sanjay and Srikanth while Kapil Dev with his classy set-ups ensured a fourth title win for the exchange men.
