India beat Iran 20-25 29-27 31-29 27-25 to reach their maiden final of AVC Asian Cup for Men at Baluan Sholak Sports Palace in Almaty, Kazakhstan. India show nerves of steel to oust Iran in AVC Cup Semi-Final Iran, who have made the final in each of the three previous editions of this tournament, were without the services of injured Ranjbar Amin but had enough collective experience in the squad to field a strong line-up. While majority of their first team squad were playing friendlies in USA in preparation for World Championship, Peyman Akbari could call upon regulars Rahman Davodi, Mohammed Taher Vadi and Alireza Jadidi alongside the cream of the next generation crop for the two time champions. Indians had slightest of height advantage going into the semi-final but have failed to beat Iran in all four previous matches between the teams in the previous editions of AVC Cup. However, G.E.Sreedharans wards have been one of the form teams in this tournament and they showed nerves of steel to pull of three heists to knock Iran out and set up a final showdown with Korea. Akbari sensed the danger from the Indian spikers and put up a three man block with Ghorbani Saeid Shirood, Mostafa Sharifat and Mohammed Taher Vadi covering the net well to counter the Indians running on to short sets. Akbaris tactics worked superbly as Iran breezed through the first set 25-20. Prabagaran, Vaishnav, Gurinder Singh & Navjit Singh could not penetrate the Iranian block and made too many errors to concede the first game. Iran took the lead in the second set and were on course to go 2-0 up in the match. Sridharan regrouped with his lads during a time-out and Indians clawed their way back into the set and eventually took the game 29-27. The third set followed a similar pattern only for Indians to show tremendous character to draw level at 24-24 and then hold their composure in an enthralling ending to the set. The lights went off with India serving for the set at 28-27 and players were left to sit out a nervy 10 minutes at a critical stage of the match before organisers could restore the power supply. Indian players were unperturbed by the interruption and took the game 31-29 to get their noses ahead in the match. In following with the trend in the match, Iran cranked out couple of good kills to go 12-9 in front in the fourthonly to see India battle back to edge ahead. When the set went into extra points, the Indians had the confidence to pull off a third straight steal to win the semi-final 3-1. India will face Korea in the final. Korea, who beat Kazakhstan 3-0 in the other semi-final, handed Indias only loss of the tournament in their Pool A earlier in the week.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 01:27:18 +0000
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