Thai spikers eye final four after shocking Australia
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Thailand recorded their first victory in the 4th AVC Cup for Men, stunning world No 12 Australia 25-14 25-20 29-27 here yesterday.
The victory in straight games came as relief for volleyball’s world No 37, who played a five-set thriller against Iran on Monday, in the one-week tournament.
“We played to our strengths against Australia and served well in the first two games,” said coach Monchai Supajirakul said. “Australia improved their serves in the third and caused us problems in reception. Our players were not able to dig out their fast spikes. But we brought on Kissada [Nilsawai], whose back-court spikes created confusion all round for the Aussies.”
“We have been drawn in a tough Pool B, which includes title-holders China and Iran. The group competition is not that important. The play-offs on August 22 are the most important because only four teams will advance to the final.”
Thailand handed a mighty scare to world No 11 Iran on Monday, before the two-time Asian champions battled through to a 25-23 25-16 20-25 25-19 18-16 win.
Monchai said it was a case of “so near yet so far”: “We had a chance to beat them. They led us 13-10 in the final game and we hit back to tie 13-13. Jirayu Raksakaew made a few serving mistakes and we lost the match.”
Meanwhile, joint world No 37 India, who outclassed hosts Kazakhstan in straight games on Monday, maintained their devastating form yesterday. With Gurinder Singh leading the attacks, India stunned Asian Games champions Japan 25-11 27-25 25-23.
Yesterday, China were due to take on Iran, a rematch of the 2012 final, and South Korea were to play hosts Kazakhstan.
The top-flight tournament sees Asia’s best eight teams pitted against one another with US$25,000 at stake for the winners.
The round-robin preliminaries see South Korea, Japan, India and Kazakhstan competing in Pool A, while Pool B features Iran, Thailand, China and Australia.
