Indonesia, which captured the first leg title on home soil last week, made it two on the trot in the 2023 Southeast Asian Men’s Volleyball League (SEA V. League) following their clean sweep in the round-robin Second Leg at the City of Santa Rosa Multi-Purpose Complex in Laguna in Philippines on Sunday.
World No.68 Indonesia got their Second Leg campaign in Philippines off to a flying start after 3-1 demolition of Vietnam in their opening match on Friday. Their second encounter the following day saw Indonesia, defending and three-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medallists, pull off stunning 3-0 win against hosts Philippines for two consecutive victories in the tournament.
On Sunday, the final day of the three-day competition, Indonesia beat the Thailand’s second string with a terrific comeback 3-2 win. In the First Leg earlier, the Indonesians routed Thailand’s first-team squad 3-1 in in their last match to claim the eventual title on home soil, but in the Second Leg, the AVC Challenge Cup winners had a commitment to contest the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup in Doha, Qatar, allowing the second string to do their duty.
Against Thailand in their last encounter on Sunday, Indonesia fielded the formidable lineup which had beaten the Thailand’s first-team squad in the First Leg last week. They included Hendra Kurniawan, Fahri Septian Putratama and Farhan Halim, three of them with individual awards to their names including Fahri, who landed the MVP title.
However, though training together as a newly-formed teams just around 5-7 days ahead of their departure for the Second Leg in Philippines, the Thailand’s second string, powered by a few experienced seniors and young stars including Jakkrit Thanomnoi, Jakkrit Chantrai and Supakorn Jenthaisong, made their mark with wins in the first two sets 27-25, 25-20, benefiting from the opponents’ unforced errors.
The Thai team still raced to an initial lead in the third set with a three-point clear at 14-11, but soon after that they became prone to unforced attacking and serving mistakes, allowing the Indonesians several attacking opportunities to mount a strong comeback. With Fahri on fire in attack and their blocking working out pretty well, Indonesia gradually pulled their games together and hit back aggressively to catch up at 15-15. They surged ahead the tough opponents to lead commandingly with a four-point advantage at 24-20 and allowed Thailand only one more point to wrap up the set…
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