Bangkok, Thailand, November 29, 2022 – Hosts Pakistan pulled off stunning straight-set win against young Iranians to become the only undefeated team in the Engro Central Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship at Nishtar Park Sports Complex in Lahore on Monday.
World No.41 Pakistan and world No.10 Iran, which finished 7th at this year’s Volleyball Nations League and 13th at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in Poland and Slovenia, contested their last encounter in the round-robin preliminaries on Monday to determine the top spot in the first round of the five-nation championship.
Iran and Pakistan have already secured their places in Tuesday’s final clash as both teams similarly claimed 9 points from three straight wins, allowing the remaining rivals no opportunity to catch up with the two leaders.
As Pakistan fielded their national senior team, seven of them including Usman Faryad Ali, Mubashar Raza, Muhammad Kashif Naveed and Hamid Yazman joined the Pakistan squad at the 2021 Asian Championship in Japan, where they finished 7th place, Iran sent in a young team, 10 of them played at this year’s Asian Men’s U18 Championship at home, where they picked up silver.
However, Iran remained strong with the likes of Mahdi Jelveh Ghaziani and two powerful spikers Poriya Hossein Khanzadeh Firouzjah and Amir Mohammad Golzadeh. Poriya and Golzadeh steered the Iran’s U20 squad to the Asian Men’s U20 title this year in Riffa, Bahrain and both of them also joined Iran in the 2022 AVC Cup for Men in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. Mahdi Jelveh Ghaziani, 21, was the lone player who joined the Iran national team in the last year’s Asian Championship in Japan, where the Iranians reigned supreme.
Pakistan made a strong start to snatch the hard-fought first set 25-22. Iran coach Reza Vakili Farjad shuffled his line-up a lot in the second set to improve the team’s fortune, but still found the host side too strong to go down 20-25.
Iran rested their best two players, Poriya and Golzadeh, in the third set, and fielded all U18 players. The young Iranians proved no match against the much stronger Pakistanis. The host side went on their powerful attacks to capture the comfortable set 25-17 and 3-0 match.
Farooq Haidar chipped in with 15 points for Pakistan including 12 attacks and team-leading 2 blocks, while Afaq Khan and Abdul Zaheer kept good company to contribute 14 and 11 points respectively. Mohammadreza Alejalil led Iran with 11 points.
In the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Asian Volleyball Confederation…