Maldives’ Mohamed Shiham Yaish attacks Uzbekistan
Colombo, Sri Lanka, October 10, 2024 – Uzbekistan extended their perfect run on Day 5 of the CAVA Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium here after securing a fantastic straight-set win against the Maldives.
Uzbekistan, which have yet lost a match to their respective opponents, performed brilliantly in the match which turned out to be one-way traffic on Thursday. Uzbekistan, led by Adilbek Muratabaev, came up with really good serving, while Bilolbek Hakimov’s effective blocking and the team’s defence created a lot of problems to the Maldives.
Uzbekistan took the first two sets without much effort 25-12, 25-10, but the Maldives regained their composure in the third set and challenged the rivals seriously. Still, they could not keep their rhythm until the end. Uzbekistan went on their attacks to capture the set 25-16 and the 61-minute match.
Adilbek Muratabaev played a big role in leading Uzbekistan to the straight-set victory, bagging 16 points from 9 attacks and 7 aces, while Bilolbek Hakimov added another 13 points. Ali Iyan led Maldives with 9 points including 7 attacks from 18 attempts.
Elsewhere, Turkmenistan powered past host nation Sri Lanka 3-1 (25-22, 25-18, 22-25, 25-16) in a well-fought encounter.
Bayramgeldi Berdiyev tallied 11 points including 4 blocks and 2 aces for Turkmenistan, while Yazmyrat Merdanov contributed 10, all in attack. Thenuka W. A. A. was the Sri Lanka’s most productive player to deliver an impressive 18 points including 17 attacks from 42 attempts.
As Sri Lanka fared better in attacks (43 to 39), Turkmenistan did a very good job in blocks (12 to 11) and benefitted more from opponent error (43 to 24). Both sides performed well in service to carry out 3 aces apiece.
The final match saw Kyrgyzstan survive a huge scare from Nepal to capture a hard-fought five-set thriller 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 22-25, 19-17 in exhausting 126 minutes.
Zalkarbek Ergeshov scored a match-high 22 points from 21 kills and one block for Kyrgyzstan, with Akmat Paiazuulu and Temirlan Temirbekov contributing 16 and 15 points respectively.
Nepal had five players who scored double digits, with Sagar Rasouli harvesting 22 points including 21 kills from 41 attempts. Shailendra Yadav and Arjun Nepali added 17 and 11 points respectively, while Vishwas Adhikari and Pahal Gahatraj scored 10 apiece.
As teams had completed four matches, with just one left in the single round-robin preliminaries on Friday, Uzbekistan maintained their top spot at the six-team standings with 11 points from four straight wins. Turkmenistan are trailing in close second with just one point behind from three wins against one loss.
Nepal came in third place with seven points from two wins against two losses, while Kyrgyzstan had only four points from two wins against two losses to finish fourth. Hosts Sri Lanka were placed fifth with 4 points from one win against three losses and winless Maldives finished bottom of the sixth position with no point earned.
The tournament continues to heat up as teams battle it out for top spots in the pool stage, setting the stage for a thrilling Day 6 of competition.
On Friday, the final day of the preliminaries, Nepal will go up against Turkmenistan at 14.00pm local time, while hosts Sri Lanka will take on Uzbekistan at 16.00pm and Maldives challenge Kyrgyzstan at 18.00pm.
MATCH RESULTS AND RANKINGS
MATCH SCHEDULE
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