Hosts Qatar took advantage of a couple of upsets on the first two days and disposed Pakistan in straight sets to win the International Friendly Volleyball Tournament at the QVA Indoor Hall here on Wednesday.
On the third and concluding day, Qatar tamed giant-killers Pakistan 25-21 25-19 25-16 with Pape, Ilija, Raimi, Ahmad Jamal, Nikola and Mubarak Dahi Waleed firing pipes and excelling in the net defence as well.
With this win, they emerged the champions with four points. Qatar had lost the opener to Oman in five sets. But Pakistan did Qatar a favour as they took four sets to beat Oman on Tuesday and foiled their hopes of the title.
Qatar required the win inside three or four sets to win the title today, which they accomplished much to the joy of coach Massimiliano Giaccardi.
Barring the second set, Qatar established a comfortable lead and went on steadily to pull off them. In the second, Pakistan forged 6-2 ahead. But Qatar recovered gamely to tie the scores at 7. Pakistan also battled spiritedly and managed to stay ahead narrowly till Qatar equalised at 15.
Waleed and Ilija then pushed Qatar 19-16 up with thrilling smashes. Later Pakistan tried to narrow down the gap and were 18-21 behind. The home team defended well at this stage and Ajmal pulled off two blocks in a row before drilling a deadly spike to make it 23-8.
This was followed up with Raimi setting up the set point (24-19) with a kill. Ilija effected a block off Fakhar to seal the set and a 2-0 lead.
In the third set, Qatar were all over Pakistan, racing to 17-10. Later, Bojan joined the team and helped team move to 23-16. Belal struck a big blow to bring up the match up and an exciting rally followed up but Bojan won a touch-out to end it and the match.
For Pakistan, Muneer was the most dominant player, winning most of the points through his spikes. He was aided well by Aimal and Idrees.
Both Qatar and Pakistan are going to Surabaya, Indonesia to contest in the Asian Volleyball Championship, which to due to begin on July 24. While Qatar are grouped in Pool A, Pakistan are placed in Pool B.
Giaccardi was delighted with his team’s progress in preparations for the Asian championship. He said, “The Qatar team is right now young and will get better with time. The players are excited to play for the nation and ready to work hard, which is good for the future.
“Sooner or later, the ageing players had to go and we had to start our first step soon. It is good that we do it now.
“We’re trying to improve our strength, which is our defence. We’ll try to catch our opponents in this trap. Also we’re making efforts to raise our spiking ability. Slowly, we’re on the way up but it is a long road.
“We’re happy with the preparations for the upcoming Asian championships in Indonesia and we’ll try to do our best. Even in Asia, the standard is good and our aim will be to do better than before,” he added.
Qatar’s best finish was a fourth place in 2015 in previous eight appearances.
النتائج
Qatar beat Pakistan 25-21 25-19 25-16