India continued their all-conquering show and breezed past South Africa in straight sets to set up a summit clash with Australia in the second Commonwealth volleyball championship in Kolkata on Friday.
The hosts, buoyed by a thrilling victory over the formidable Aussies in their concluding group league fixture, took 69 minutes to prevail over South Africa 25-20, 29-27, 25-18 in the semi-finals before a wildly cheering crowd of 5,500 at the Netaji Indoor stadium.
Later, Australia blew away Pakistan in straight sets, winning the other semi-final 25-16, 25-20, 26-24 to book a berth in the title round.
Though India go into the final as favourites on the strength of their superb showing in the championship so far, the title-clash could be a touch-and-go affair, if the cracker of a tie between the two teams on Thursday was any indication.
Aussie coach Russel Borgeaud, however, said his team would not treat the final as a grudge match.
"We are not thinking about revenge. We just want to win tomorrow's match. We now get another opportunity to beat India and I hope we learn from the mistakes we committed against them yesterday," said Borgeaud.
In the opening semi-final, the Indians came back from the brink in an exciting second set as the South Africans played spiritedly but squandered three set points to concede the set.
There was no stopping the hosts in the third set which was over in 21 minutes.
For India, once again Sanjay Kumar was the top scorer as he let loose a barrage of smashes to garner 17 points.
For South Africa, Chiya Freedom collected 15 points.
The South African team's tactical move of slowing down the game to engage the Indians in long rallies did not work as the visitors made a lot of unforced errors, particularly during crucial points of the second set.
Indian coach G E Sridharan later said, "It is always a bit of a problem to adjust to a slow game after playing a very fast game a day before. But our boys did well."
South African coach Elwassimy Hamid admitted that the Indians deserved to win.
"They are more experienced, having played together for long," he added.
