Sri Lanka suffer second defeat

Bernard PERERA in Indonesia

VOLLEYBALL: Sri Lanka failed to live upto expectations yesterday when they lost their second game of the 14th Asian Men’s Senior Volleyball Championships at the Istora stadium in Jakarta by three sets to nil against Saudi Arabia.

Sri Lankan spikers never got their act together well to stop the attack posed by the Arabians. Saudis taking full control of the game from the word go got off to firm lead while the Lankans could not halt them at any stage. The set ending in favour of the Saudis at 25-14.

In the second too, Lankans failed once again in all their attempts and had conceded the set with the same margin of 25-14. This increased the confidence of the Saudis and they continued to dominate this set too.

But Sri Lanka came back strongly in this set to be on par with their opponents. After a hard fought contest the Lankans lost the set by a slender margin of two points 25-23.

The manner in which the Lankans played in this set showed that they are improving steadily. Their loss in this game saw Thailand take the top position in Group ‘C’ and are certain to move into the second round. The Sri Lankans will now face the task of battling it out with other unqualified teams to find their rankings in the Asian Region.

Meanwhile Australia defeated Kazakastan in straight sets to book their position in the second round from Group ‘D’. The scores read 25-14, 25-20, 25-14. Earlier Australia outplayed India making it two wins in two outings.

The other team that came up with a good performance yesterday was Chinese Taipei who beat the less fancied Maldivians also in straight sets. Taipei after this victory made their way into the round two.

Iran too made sure of their place in the final eight when they achieved victory over Vietnam 3-1. Iran won the first set and failed to grab the second losing 25-21, but came out with a superb performance to win the following two sets 25-22, 25- 25-22.

The leaders of the four groups Chinese Taipei, Iran, Thailand, Australia will go up to round two. The others in this super eight are hosts Indonesia, Japan the defending Champs China and Korea.