Gritty Pakistan fall to Thailand in Asian Volleyball C’ship

KARACHI: Pakistan on Saturday went 0-3 down while fighting hard against Thailand in the classification round of the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship in Surabaya, Indonesia.

It was a tough game and both sides played superbly right till the end.

After losing the first set 18-25, Pakistan offered tough resistance against their rivals Thailand which took their lead to 2-0 with a hard-earned 26-24 win in the second set. In the third set, once again a grueling fight was witnessed before Thailand winning it 25-23 to seal a tough win.

Pakistan ended second in Group H and will now face Qatar on Sunday (today) in the 9th to 12th place semi-finals.

After losing the first two games against Chinese Taipei and strong Iran in the preliminaries, Pakistan finally ended their losing streak with a 3-1 victory over Iraq, which also has a solid club structure.

And the other day Pakistan defeated Hong Kong when the Greenshirts staged a superb fightback after having gone 0-2 down.

Iranian coach Hamid Movahedi is handling the side which also has the assistance of Iranian analyst who accompanied the team in the Islamic Games and World Championship qualifiers.