Australia edge Pakistan in volleyball thriller

KARACHI: Pakistan on Thursday went 2-3 down to Australia despite taking 2-0 lead in the quarter-final of the 20th Asian Seniors Men’s Volleyball Championship in Tehran.

With the outcome, Pakistan will now face China in the 5th to 8th place semi-finals on Friday (today). Pakistan took a golden start when they lifted the first two sets 25-21, 25-21 to put pressure on Australia, one of the strongest sides of the event.

However at this stage Australia re-grouped, retaliated strongly and went on to sweep the next three sets 25-18, 25-14 and 15-13 to record a sensational win.In other quarter-finals South Korea defeated India 3-1, Japan overwhelmed China 3-1 while Iran and Chinese Taipei match was in progress till filing of the story.

In the classification round Pakistan lost both their matches against Japan and Chinese Taipei on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.Pakistan-Australia quarter-final turned out to be the most gripping one. According to information forwarded by Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF), in the fifth set Pakistan and Australia were locked 13-13 when Zaheer’s one shot went off, otherwise, it would have been game point. “After winning the first two sets Australians serves were not taken well. Unluckily the main setter, Asif had back injury and could not play his original game. The other setter Kashif played well in the first two sets but was seen off-colour in the next three sets,” PVF said.

“Today Pakistan performed very well in quarter-final as they were playing against the top team of Asia which have come to Iran for the event after playing World League,” the PVF said.“In the event in Tehran Australia had defeated world’s fifth-place team Iran 3-1 and this shows that Pakistan’s performance was good,” the federation said.

“Pakistan need confidence to win big matches. This requires more international matches but shortage of finances is a great hindrance in the way,” the PVF said. Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has given Rs3 milion to the PVF for the tour. However PVF said that the visit costed the federation around Rs5million.

“Federation is yet to pay for tickets of the tour. The contract of the Korean coach Kim, who has done a great job, is being expired in few days and the PVF does not have anything in its exchequer to pay him anymore. His services are required for the South Asian Games which will be hosted by Nepal from December 1-10 and the Olympic qualifiers in China in January,” the PVF said.