Pakistan volleyball team topple Kiwis 3-1

KARACHI: Pakistan youth volleyball team on Wednesday overwhelmed New Zealand 3-1 in the classification match for the 11th to 14th place in the 12th Asian Men’s Under-18 Volleyball Championship in Tabriz, Iran.

Pakistan will now fight in the 11th place play-off against the winners of the outing which was scheduled to be held between Oman and Kazakhstan on Wednesday night.

This was the second time in the event that Pakistan defeated New Zealand. In the group opener Pakistan had whipped New Zealand 3-0 with the set scores being 25-18, 25-20, 29-31, 25-17. Pakistan on Tuesday lost to South Korea 0-3 in their crucial game. Had Pakistan won that they would have qualified for the next year’s World Championships. This was the first time that Pakistan featured in the competitions in which 17 nations from the continent are showing their worth.

The format of the event originally constituted had to be revised following protests from the participating teams. In the initial format 18 teams had been bracketed in two divisions. In division-1 nine top-ranked sides had been kept and in division-2 nine low-ranked sides had been placed. The winers of the division-2 had to qualify for the division-1. But in the changed format again top-ranked nine teams were seeding which also helped them to finish in top six or so. Pakistan, which were debutants, although lost only a single game against South Korea but they had to go down and play for the 11th to 14th place classification phase.