Lalitpur, Nepal, August 21, 2019 – Uzbekistan struggled to beat Afghanistan in hard-fought three-set thriller to make a clean sweep in Pool B and advance to the Thursday’s semi-finals at the 2019 Asian Senior Men’s Central Zone Volleyball Championship at Army PTASC Gymnasiums here.
Uzbekistan, powering past Bangladesh and reigning champions Turkmenistan in similar straight sets in the first two matches, overcame a sturdy challenge from Afghanistan to beat the tough rivals in close encounter 25-23 29-27 29-27 to top Pool B.
Sulaymon Yakhyopov and Abdullazizov Zizbek chipped in with 9 points apiece for Uzbekistan, while Omid Zardan scored a team-high 19 points in a losing effort of helping Afghanistan win the match. Uzbekistan took an advantage of the opponents’ errors (36 points), which became an influential factor in helping the team win this crucial match, while Afghanistan had 23 points benefits from the opponents’ errors.
In the other Pool B match, defending champions Turkmenistan beat Bangladesh 3-1 (25-22 25-16 27-29 25-16) in a 2018 final rematch.
Didar Nuryyev scored a match-high 31 points including 30 attempts for Turkmenistan, while Biswas Horosit led Bangladesh with 23 points all from his spectacular attacks.
At the end of the pool round-robin preliminaries on Wednesday, Uzbekistan captured the top spot in Pool B with 9 points from three straight wins, followed by Turkmenistan with 6 points from two wins against one loss. Afghanistan came in third place with 2 points from one win against two losses, with winless Bangladesh in fourth position.
In Pool A match on Wednesday, Maldives stunned Nepal and their home fans after a convincing straight-set 25-22 25-21 25-14 win in their last preliminary match.
Sajid Ismail chipped in with 20 points including 18 attacks for Maldives, while Bista Rajendra and Bhatta Chhetri Dhan Bahadur scored 7 points apiece for the host side.
With only three teams contesting Pool A, Kyrgyzstan had already topped the Pool on Tuesday after winning six points from two consecutive matches, leaving Nepal and Maldives to battle it out for the second place in the Pool to join Pool A winners Kyrgyzstan in the semi-finals.
Following the Wednesday’s victory, Maldives had 3 points from one win against one loss to finish second, with the host side in third place with two straight losses.
In the Thursday’s cross semi-finals, Pool A winners Kyrgyzstan will take on title-holders and Pool B runners-up Turkmenistan, while Pool B winners Uzbekistan will battle it out with Pool A runners-up Maldives. The third-place playoff match sees Pool A third place and hosts Nepal take on Pool B third place Afghanistan.
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