Lalitpur, Nepal, August 20, 2019 – Uzbekistan, fresh from beating Bangladesh 3-0 the previous day, registered two consecutive wins after pulling off a stunning straight-set 25-18 25-21 25-15 victory over reigning champions Turkmenistan in their second Pool B encounter of the 2019 Asian Senior Men’s Central Zone Volleyball Championship at the Army PTASC Gymnasium on Tuesday.
Fozil Khamroev chipped in with 14 points including 13 attacks for Uzbekistan, while Dovranbek Rahimov led Turkmenistan with 15 points including 13 attacks and one block. Last year, Turkmenistan performed superbly as they came from behind to beat hosts Bangladesh 3-1 in the final showdown of the previous edition in Dhaka to land the title.
With two straight wins, Uzbekistan lead Pool B with 6 points to next take on Afghanistan in their last preliminary match on Wednesday. Turkmenistan, which snatched their first win on Tuesday after a hard-fought four-set thriller against Afghanistan, came in second place with one win against one loss and will Wednesday go up against Bangladesh in a 2018 final rematch.
In the other Pool B clash, Afghanistan struggled to beat Bangladesh in thrilling tie-breaker win 25-21 19-25 18-25 25-23 15-12.
Momin Malekzada scored a match-high 24 points for Afghanistan including 19 attacks and 3 solid blocks, with Horosit Biswas topscoring with 21 points for Bangladesh.
After two days, Afghanistan are trailing in third place in Pool B with 2 points from one win against one loss, while Bangladesh came in fourth place with one point from two losses.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan won two successive matches in Pool A on Tuesday. After stunning hosts Nepal 3-0 in the curtain-raisers, Kyrgyzstan continued their good show to power past Maldives in straight sets 25-15 26-24 25-19.
Kanybek Uulu Onolbek chipped in with 17 points from 14 attacks and 3 blocks for Kyrgyzstan, while Sajid Ismail led Maldives with 16 points including 14 attacks.
With only three teams contesting Pool A, Kyrgyzstan are assured of capturing the top spot in Pool A after scoring 6 points from two straight wins. Nepal and Maldives, both of them similarly had no point from one loss, came in second and third places respectively.
On Wednesday, the last day of the pool round-robin preliminaries, Nepal and Maldives will battle it out for the second place in Pool A to join Kyrgyzstan in the semi-finals.
Seven teams – Kyrgyzstan, Maldives and hosts Nepal in Pool A and Turkmenistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in Pool B, are competing in the 2019 Asian Senior Men’s Central Zone Volleyball Championship in Nepal. After the pool plays, top two teams from Pool A and Pool B will contest the cross semi-finals on Thursday, while teams finishing third place from both Pools will battle it out in the 5th-6th playoff.
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