Pakistan beat Kazakhstan in Asian U-23 Volleyball

KARACHI: Pakistan defeated Kazakhstan 3-2 to set up a date with China for the fifth-place game in the Asian Under-23 Volleyball Championship in Iran on Monday.

Pakistan, who had badly lost their quarter-final against Thailand 0-3 the other day, fought bravely against Kazakhstan in the 5-8 place semi-finals in Ardabil.

After losing the first set 20-25, Kazakhstan came back strongly and levelled the game 1-1 through a 25-17 triumph in the second set. Pakistan again took the lead with a 25-23 win over the Kazakhs in the third set. Kazakhstan once again fought their way back by squaring the show 2-2 with a 25-22 win over the Green-shirts. However, Pakistan lived up to the billing in the fifth and decisive set when they inked a 16-14 win to seal the fate of the outing in their favour.

The set score was 25-20, 17-25, 25-23, 22-25 and 16-14 in Pakistan’s favour. Pakistan will now face China on Tuesday (today) in the fifth-place outing.

China beat Malaysia 3-1 in the other 5-8 place semi-finals. China had been beaten by Chinese Taipei 3-0 in the quarter-finals.

In the preliminaries, Pakistan lost to Iran 0-3. Pakistan then faced a 1-3 loss against China in the classification stage before beating Malaysia 3-1 to qualify for the quarter-finals where they suffered a huge loss at the hands of much improved Thailand on Sunday.