For the second successive day, Qatar continued to play heartening volleyball and moved into the second stage of the Asian Championship in Tehran, Iran with a commanding 3-0 victory over higher-ranked India on Saturday.
After beating world 13th-ranked Australia on the first day of the championship, the Al Annabi team secured their primary goal of getting among the top eight as they pulled off a 25-18 25-19 25-22 triumph over 39th-ranked India.
The two teams had clashed in an international championship prior to the Asian clash in July. The Qatari team had prevailed over the rivals, though the Indians had not fielded the ‘A’ side.
This second back-to-back victory sent the Juan Manuel Cichello-trained side into the second group stage where it will be joined by the second team from the Pool B and the top two from the Pool D.
On Sunday, Qatar have to play their last and pool match against Turkmenistan, who are world 141st-ranked, and are unlikely to have any problems against them. The result of this match will have no bearing on the Qatar’s position in the group as they have already beaten both the tough teams.
Australia and India will battle for the second place in the group and the winner will grab the second spot behind Qatar before advancing to the next stage. At the moment, both Australia and India have same three points but the former have better quotient in terms of sets and points ratio.
After the Turkmenistan match, Qatar have a day’s rest on Monday before they take on China and Japan, who are likely to qualify from the Pool D.
Qatar had a determined start and they were 5-0 up before India recorded their first point in the opening set. The strong and confident beginning made Qatar dominate the rivals. Mubarak Dahi Waleed and Nader Abubakr controlled the net brilliantly and Qatar maintained their upper hand to lead by 11-7 19-14 and 22-14 before sealing a 1-0 advantage.
In the second set too, Qatar moved 5-2 up. The Indians recovered to tie the scores twice 10-10 and 11-11. Qatar reeled off five points to go 16-12 ahead. Abubakr and Waleed were supported by Renan Rebeiro and the trio pushed Qatar to lead by 19-15, 20-16 and 21-17. India could manage two more points and Qatar went on to grab a commanding 2-0 lead.
India produced some resilience in the third and matched the opponents point for point before getting 9-8 ahead. Qatar collected five points to open a big gap of 18-12. The Indians launched another fightback and cut back the margin to 16-18. Coach Cichello called a time-out and the Qatari players addressed the problems immediately before clinching the set at 22 to record another impressive victory.
Mohamed Jassim al Kuwari, the team head, was delighted with his team’s show and commented from Tehran, “We managed to complete our first target of reaching the quarter-finals. The entire team played superbly and showing the improvement due to rigorous training since June.
“We want to thank coach Juan Manuel Cichello and the support staff for the strong start to the championship and achievement. Their hard work is paying off well but our journey is not yet over,” he added.
“We had beaten India last year in Dubai. We defeated them in Doha in July during the international tournament also. But this team was different from the one which came to Qatar recently. Our players are determined to raise their level and bring more laurels home,” said Kuwari.
“During the next stage, we’re likely to take on China and Japan. We’ll think about that later. Our first priority is to play hard against Turkmenistan and improve our record as much as possible. We want to keep pushing as this looks our best chance to impress in the later stages of the championship,” Kuwari said, mixing caution in his tone.
Libero Saeed Suleiman commented, “We were focused and ready to raise our level against India, which is a strong team. We used our coach’s tips well and now we’ve to continue to do that against Turkmenistan as well.
“We’re on the top of the group and after we play Turkmenistan, we’ll draw new strategy for the second stage, which is, of course, not going to be easy.”
Spiker Abubakr expressed relief and satisfaction over the team’s display so far. “We deserved to be on the top as we defeated two strong sides in the group – Australia and India. We will try to deliver our best in the next phase of the championship.”
Qatar Assistant Coach Ali Ishaq congratulated the team on making it to the last eight stage and the QVA on providing all possible facilities during the preparation time. “We’ve qualified for the quarter-finals for which I want to congratulate my team. Now we’ll try to improve upon this result by doing whatever is possible within our power.”
Qatari Head Coach Cichello said, “We finished the first stage quite successfully and reached the next stage with flying colours. We deserved what we managed till now. The road ahead is tough but we’re determined to do well against China and Japan and make our fans happy.”