Kyrgyz test for hosts

Hosts Bangladesh will likely face an uphill task to reach the final of the Bangabandhu Asian Senior Men's Central Zone Volleyball Championship as they take on a strong Kyrgyzstan side in the second semifinal at the Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in Mirpur today.

The match will start at 5:00pm after Turkmenistan play the first semifinal against Nepal at 3:00pm.

Bangladesh hardly faced any trouble dispatching group opponents Nepal and Maldives in 3-1 and 3-0 sets respectively, but the semifinal against Kyrgyzstan is expected to be the real fist fight for the home side, who have set their sights on the final.

Even though Kyrgyzstan started with a defeat against pretournament favourites Turkmenistan, the Central Asian nation staged a superb comeback against Uzbekistan in their last group match, winning 25-18, 24-26, 19-25, 25-18, 15-13.

The Kyrgyz had beaten Bangladesh in group stages of the 2016 edition before they lost against the same opposition in straight sets in the final.

The memory of that 2016 final win will definitely inspire the Bangladesh team to put up another bold performance in a bid to making a second successive final berth on home soil even though they skipped the last edition in Maldives.

The charges of Ali Pour Aroji, however, need to improve on receiving and blocking against a team which is regarded physically and technically ahead of Bangladesh.  

Captain Horosit Biswas believes beating Kyrgyzstan will be tough but not impossible as they had beaten them before.

“Tomorrow's semifinal is more important for us than anything. You can say that the semifinal is our real test. No doubt, Kyrgyzstan is a strong opponent but we are hopeful about producing a good result against them,” Horosit said. “Coach has worked on the mistakes we made in the first two matches and we also realised our mistakes. We are eagerly waiting for the semifinal.”

The Bangladesh coach believes the semifinal is the acid test for his side as all three Central Asian teams of Group B are better teams compared to the Group A sides, which featured Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives. 

“All three teams of Group B are good sides, so the match against Kyrgyzstan is going to be an acid test for us,” Aroji said. “However, we are good in blocking which is our main strength. They have strong attackers. If we can prevent those attackers, then we will have a good opportunity to reach the final.”