Bangkok, Thailand, October 13, 2023 – With only one day left before the single round-robin competition will come to a close, hosts Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan stretched their win-loss record to 3-1 on Friday to keep their high hopes of finishing Top Two to face off against each other in the Sunday’s final showdown of the Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Men’s Volleyball Challenge Cup at Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo alive.
On Friday, Sri Lanka demolished Afghanistan 3-1 (25-19, 18-25, 25-22, 25-17), Uzbekistan saw off Bangladesh 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-18, 25-13) and Saudi Arabia tasted their first win in the one-week-long tournament after dramatic 3-2 (25-22, 21-25, 25-23, 25-27, 16-14) win against Nepal.
Six teams featuring world No.67 and hosts Sri Lanka, world No.86 Uzbekistan, world No.68 Afghanistan, Nepal, world No.65 Saudi Arabia and world No.72 Bangladesh are contesting the round-robin event, which will see only top two teams fight it out in the final showdown to vie for top honor. On the same occasion, teams finishing 3rd and 4th places will also renew their rivalry in the third-place playoff for bronze medal.
Following their Friday’s win, the Sri Lankans stayed atop the six-team standing with unchallenged 10 points from 3 wins against one loss and are assured of securing their berth in the Sunday’s final. Uzbekistan, which had 9 points from 3 wins against one loss, also enhanced their chances of qualifying for the final.
Afghanistan and Nepal had 6 points apiece from 2 wins against 2 losses, with the former faring well to come up with better sets ratio to maintain their third place and the latter in fourth position. Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh had the similar record of one win against 3 losses to trail in 5th and 6th places respectively, with the former holding one-point advantage to stay in front.
Sri Lanka, which had already suffered their first loss to Uzbekistan, lived up to the expectations on Friday after powering past Afghanistan, which finished 14th place at the Urmia-hosted 22nd Asian Senior Men’s Championship in Iran in August and a disappointing 17th at the recent 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Men’s Competition in China, in thrilling four sets.
The Sri Lankans took the comfortable first set 25-19, went down 18-25 in the second set, but roared back to capture the remaining two sets 25-22, 25-17 for the match.
Bandar Jayalath became the unstoppable force in the Sri Lanka’s lineup as he performed…
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