China outclass Thailand in straight sets to claim second win

Powerful Jiang Chuan and Ji Daoshuai led the China’s charge with their spectacular attacks, while Thailand remained in the similar line-up which went down narrowly 2-3 to Chinese Taipei the previous day which included ace spiker Jirayu Raksakaew, Kittikun Sri-utthawong and Kissada Nilsawai.

 

The opening set turned out to be a totally one-sided battle when China got off to a great start to lead by wide margin 7-0, thanks to the superb combination of Jiang Chuan and Miao Ruantong. The host side put their acts together with an high hope of making a comeback, but their determined attempts were in vain. China continued their winning streak to snatch the easy set 25-13, with Rao Shuhan scoring the last point for China after he fired an ace spike for the visitors’ first-set win.

 

In the second set, Thailand scored three straight points to catch up with China 8-8, but Jiang Chuan moved the Chinese ahead 13-10, using his powerful jump serves and lightning-fast attacks. Leading 24-17, China allowed the hosts only one more point to take the set 25-18.

 

Thailand had nothing to lose in the third set and they decided to field many substitutions including setter Mawin Maneewong, Kitisak Saengsee, Kiting Suksala and Kantapat Koonmee. The hosts played with guts  and fighting spirit to cope with the Chinese tactics and catch the visitors at 13-13. To no one’s astonishment, China still had enough to hold the hosts off and led narrowly 20-19. Jiang Chuan gave China a strong comeback as he attacked mightily to help the visitors capture the thrilling set 25-20 and match.

 

Jiang Chuan scored a match-high 17 points for China including 14 kills from 30 attempts. He also led in serving skill with 3 aces. Mao Ruantong contributed with 4 kill blocks. Jirayu Raksakaew led Thailand with 12 points comprising 9 kills from 30 attempts, 1 block and 2 ace serves.

 

“Thailand put the pressure on us as they are playing at home and there are a lot of fans to support them. We tried to do our best in this match. Our attacks and blocks are much better than the Thais. I think the second and third sets gave us difficulties. We next take on Chinese Taipei on Saturday. They have more experienced players than us and they have been training together for a long time. In our team, there are a few players training with the China national team for the World League, but they did not play in the starting line-up,” commented China’s head coach Li Mu through interpreter and China’s team manager Feng Kun.

 

Meanwhile, Thailand’s head coach Monchai Supajirakul admitted the team’s second loss in the top-flight tournament, saying that his players made too many mistakes in the match.

 

“We already did our best. China learned that we did not perform well defensively and they played an attack game with powerful jump serves and their pole attacks were also too strong for us to deal with. It’s very tough to cope with the Chinese tactics. We made too many mistakes on our jump serves. However, we fielded many substitutions including two teenagers in the third set and they did a good job at the beginning. We have to let them gain experience and exposure because most of them have the height average of 200cm. We next play Kazakhstan. We will try our best as we don’t want to finish fourth in Pool A. It’s not easy to do that because Kazakhstan are tall and towering with huge blocks. We have to reduce our unforced mistakes and improve our reception and blocks,” Monchai commented.