Bangladesh fail to stop Saudi Arabia
The Bangladesh national volleyball team suffered a 3-1 sets defeat to Saudi Arabia in the second semifinal of the AVC 1st Asian Men's Challenge Cup in Colombo yesterday.
Bangladesh will now play against Sri Lanka in the third-place playoff while Saudi Arabia and Iraq will play the final today.
Bangladesh, who started on the wrong foot with a defeat against Iraq before emerging as group champions by beating UAE and Mongolia, were helpless against a skilful and so far unbeaten Saudi Arabia, who easily took the first set 25-15 before Bangladesh bounced back in the second set.
Bangladesh showed their character to level things at 1-1 after winning the second set 25-21 but the boys in red and green lost the third set 25-12.
However, the charges of Iranian coach Ali Pour Aroji offered a stiff challenge in the fourth set to raise hopes of equalising with a neck-and-neck fight.
The scores were tied at 20-20 before Saudi Arabia had a four-point blitz. However, Bangladesh again came back strongly and secured four successive points to even the scores. However, they ultimately could not stop Saudi Arabia from securing two more points to wrap up the win.
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