Bangladesh beat Qatar in U-20 Volleyball C’ship

Bangladesh moved into the top-six spot of the 21st Asian Men's U20 Volleyball Championship as they fought back in exciting 3-2 sets win over a strong Qatar team in the 1st-12th place-deciding match at the Isa Sports City Hall in Riffa, the second largest city in Bahrain, today.

Bangladesh will play the 1st-6th place-deciding match against Thailand tomorrow.

The boys in red and green fought neck-and-neck with Qatar in the first set and even tied the score at 20-all, but Qatar showed their character and scored five successive points to beat Bangladesh 25-20 in the first set after some poor defending and services from Bangladesh.

However, Iranian coach Ali-Poir Aroji's charges bounced back in the second and third set, quelling any Qatari resistance and winning the sets 25-19 and 25-18 to take a 2-1 lead. Qatar then levelled the margin at 2-2 with a hard-fought 25-23 win over Bangladesh in the fourth set.

In the decisive fifth set, Bangladesh jumped to a fantastic start and wrapped up the victory with a comfortable 15-9 triumph.

"We are very happy to win the match. Although we were not sure we could win against Qatar, we did it and we are extremely happy with the achievement," key player Tanvir Hossain Tanmoy said at the post-match briefing.