The Indian men's volleyball team continued its impressive run, advancing to the quarterfinals with a clinical 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei at the Asian Games, here on Friday.
Following their stunning win over South Korea, India notched up a 25-22, 25-22, 25-21 win over Chinese Taipei in an hour and 25 minutes to progress to the 1-6th place playoffs.
India will face either Japan or Kazakhstan on Sunday.
"They are an experienced team, play fast. They took lead in first two sets, but our team covered well and snatched the lead," India captain Vinit told reporters after the match.
'We expected a four-setter, but our team played well with man-to-man marking and improved a lot,' he added.
India trailed 6-10 early on but Erin Varghese helped the side to reduce the gap to 11-13.
After lagging the for most part, India finally drew parity at 21-21 before Varghese and Ashwal Rai won the final two points to give India the lead.
India led 3-0 initially in the second set but Chinese Taipei managed to level the scores at 17-17. However, India moved ahead in the final moments with consecutive points to close the issue 25-22.
India made a positive start in the decider, leading 10-4 at one stage.
Chinese Taipei managed to narrow it down to 10-12 before drawing level at 14-14.
India, however, moved ahead to 21-18 before sealing it comfortably 25-21.
'Pakistan also had defeated them (Chinese Taipei) 3-0, so we were under pressure to defeat them,' assistant coach Jaideep Sarkar said.
'With back-to-back wins over Korea and Chinese Taipei, this is a good morale-booster ahead of our match against Japan,' he said.
'We are not inferior to anyone. Japan are a good side and we expect a tough contest,' he added.
(Published 22 September 2023, 10:29 IST)
JOIN US