June 23, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 22: India produced their very best show in a remarkable comeback to stun defending champions Kazakhstan 3-2 in the second Asian Central Zone Men’s Volleyball Championship at the Liaquat Gymnasium, Pakistan Sports Complex on Friday.

Besides India, Sri Lanka and Iran also recorded victories in their matches against the Maldives and Turkmenistan respectively in the two matches held earlier on Friday.

In the very crucial match of the championship between Kazakhstan and India, the South Asian Games champions, top-quality volleyball was witnessed.

Kazakhstan played with better rhythm and coordination in the first set. As their spiking was average they remained successful in blocking and services did not allow India to take lead throughout the set.

As Kazakhstan led 8-6, the Indians levelled at 10 and 14 before the score was again locked at 18-18. However, Kazakhstan got the upper hand in the end to take the set 25-22.

In the second set Kazakhstan made many unforced errors to allow India to gain points as the score reached 15 each after which till the end of the set Kazakhstan led through powerful spikes and effective blocking to grab the set 25-21.

Trailing by two sets the Indians fought back nicely. Their ace spikers P.S. Srikanth and Mandeep Singh, quick attackers Sube Singh and Sundeep scored clusters of points in succession as the score reached a delicate 24-24, 25-25 before arriving at 34-34.

At this stage the Indian captain defended two powerful spikes of Kazakhstan spikers to help his team launch a counter attack to gain two consecutive points to win the third set 36-34.

Buoyed by the third set comeback, the Indians got the momentum they badly needed to score some quick points to leave the Kazakh defence disjointed in the fourth set. The Indian team took the advantage of the opponents’ unforced errors, while leading throughout the set to bag it 25-16 finally.

In the fifth set India kept their domination to win it 15-11 and the match, which lasted for two hours and 18 minutes, to record two crucial points.

The Indian victory has thrown the race for the title wide open with four teams now poised to vie for the top honours – India, Kazakhstan, Iran and Pakistan.

Earlier, in the first match of the day, Sri Lanka defeated the Maldives 3-0. The Sri Lankans, outclassing their opponents in all departments of the game, registered a 25-16, 25-19, 25-17 win.

In the second match, Iran overcame Turkmenistan 3-0 with set scores of 25-16, 25-20, 25-23.

Saturday’s fixtures:

Maldives v Iran (1pm); Kazakhstan v Sri Lanka (3pm); Pakistan v India (5pm). –Agencies