Hosts off to winning start

Hosts Bangladesh made a rousing start to the Bangamata Asian Senior Women’s Central Zone Volleyball Championship, beating Afghanistan in straight sets at the Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium yesterday.

The Bangladesh team, which has been training for the last three months with this championship and the South Asian Games in sight, had a comfortable outing as they breezed through with a 25-9, 25-9, 25-3 points victory over the Afghans.

Bangladesh attacker Sabina Yasmin was adjudged the best player of the match.

Bangladesh coach Golam Rasul was satisfied with the performance, but felt his side could play better when playing against better oppositions.

“We played well, but we can play even better. We have played against Maldives and Nepal before and those matches have been competitive. Tomorrow’s game against Maldives will be a competitive one,” the Bangladesh coach said after the match.

Bangladesh men’s team coach Alipour Arozi watched the match too and praised the performance of the host team.

Earlier in the day, Maldives edged past Kyrgyzstan by 3-2 sets in the opening match of the championship. Bangladesh had lost against the Kyrgyz in a practice match ahead of the championship.

Bangladesh will take on Maldives while Afghanistan will square off against Nepal in the two matches today. The top two teams after the round-robin league will meet in the final on November 14.