Bangkok, Thailand, December 25, 2022 – Hosts Bangladesh survived a scare to narrowly edge past Sri Lanka in hard-fought five-set thriller for a clean sweep in the round-robin preliminaries to top the standings in the 2022 Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Men’s U23 Volleyball Championship at Shaheed Suhrawardi National Indoor Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka on Saturday.
In their last preliminary encounters, Bangladesh spent gruelling 154 minutes in beating Sri Lanka 25-16, 22-25, 23-25, 25-13, 15-13, while Kyrgyzstan proved steadier to pull off a thrilling five-set win 25-16, 23-25, 25-17, 19-25, 15-6 in the exhausting 122-minute clash against Nepal.
Following their Saturday’s dramatic wins, Bangladesh maintained a perfect run in the round-robin preliminaries to top the standings with 8 points from three straight wins, followed by Kyrgyzstan with 5 points from two wins against one loss. Sri Lanka came in third place overall with 4 points from one win against two losses, while winless Nepal finished on the bottom fourth position with one point awarded.
In the Sunday’s do-or-die semifinals, Bangladesh, the best-ranked team after the preliminaries, are due to battle it out with fourth-placed Nepal, while second-ranked side Kyrgyzstan will renew their rivalry with third place Sri Lanka. The two winning teams will set up the final showdown on Sunday, with the losers fighting it out in the third-place playoff for the bronze medal.
On Saturday, in-form Bangladesh, fresh from winning their first two encounters against Nepal (3-0) and Kyrgyzstan (3-1), played a tough match on the final day of the round-robin play against Sri Lanka. Making a confident start with 25-16 win in the opening set, the host side were seemingly cruising towards a routine victory.
Things changed suddenly as the Sri Lankans, who finished eighth place at the 2019 Asian Men’s U23 Championship in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, came back to claim the second set 25-22 and continued their fine form for the 25-23 triumph in the third set. Holding a 2-1 advantage, the strong visitors were poised to run away with the match win, but unfortunately let it slip through their fingers as they were beginning to make unforced errors in the fourth set.
Sujon, coupled with Shafin, was blocking everything at the net while Shafin’s well-placed serving and attacks were working as a well-oiled machine and hosts Bangladesh sealed the one-sided set 25-13, forcing the tie-breaker.
Both sides took turns unleashing on several powerful blows in the decider, but the host side fared better on the home stretch to capture the hotly-contested set 15-13 and match.
Shafin scored a game-high 19 points including 16 attacks from 35 attempts for Bangladesh, followed by Sujon with 17 points including team-leading 7 blocks and Redowan with 12 points. Sri Lanka’s Kavishka emerged as the match’s leading scorer with a total of 30 points to his name including 29 attacks.
Kyrgyzstan and Nepal played a see-saw battle in the first match earlier. Ravkhat Uulu, Zheenbek Uulu and Medetbek Uulu became the Kyrgyzstan’s mainstays, with the first two overcoming the determined blockers with their exceptional attacks and the trio players producing solid blocking. Nepal were solely powered by Basnet.
A fierce battle unfolded with the win going back and forth in each set. Kyrgyzstan took the comfortable first set 25-16, went down in the close second set 23-25, reclaimed the third 25-17, but failed to make their mark in the fourth set, which they succumbed to 19-25 loss.
With the wind in their sails, Kyrgyzstan came through to take the deciding set 15-6 and match.
Ravkhat Uulu and Zheenbek Uulu scored similar 21 points for Kyrgyzstan, while Medetbek Uulu added another 11.
Zheenbak and Ravkhat fired respective 18 and 15 attack points, while three of them were blocking effectively to share 4 points apiece. Basnet led Nepal with a match-high 21 points on the team’s losing effort.
Meanwhile, CAVA President Mr Mohamed Latheef from Maldives arrived in Dhaka on Saturday and received a warm welcome from Mr Kazi Abdul Hannan from Bangladesh Volleyball Federation. He watched the hotly-anticipated match between Sri Lanka and hosts Bangladesh aside from presenting souvenir to Bangladesh’s No.7 player Shafin Sadi Mohammod, who landed Man of the Match title.
Kyrgyzstan’s No.4 player Medetbek Uulu Nurislam emerged as Man of the Match in the clash between Kyrgyzstan and Nepal.
MATCH RESULTS AND STANDINGS
MATCH SCHEDULE
Sunday’s Semifinals
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