Sri Lanka pulled off a convincing 3-0 victory over Nepal in their 2022 Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Men’s Under-23 Tournament second match played at the Shaheed Suhrawardi National Indoor Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh yesterday.
Sri Lanka had a tough opening set as they came from behind to snatch a thrilling 26-24 victory before they completely outplayed their opponents 25-18 and 25-17 in the second and third set respectively.
Naveen Kaushalya was the standout player for Sri Lanka with his brilliant all-round performance throughout the game and was later named as the Player-of-the-Match.
This was a tremendous improvement from the Sri Lanka Team after they were beaten 1-3 by Kyrgyzstan in the opening match of the four-nation tournament on the previous day.
Kyrgyzstan quickly took control to clinch the first two sets 25-21, 25-22 before Sri Lanka fought back hard and their attempts to comeback were fruitful in the third set where they took the competitive set 25-22 after a keen contest.
However, the fourth set saw Kyrgyzstan play well in defence to catch up, take control and breakaway with some crucial points, while the Sri Lankans were error-strewn and failed to make their mark at home stretch. Kyrgyzstan captured the set 25-18 and the match with Zheenbek Uulu from Kyrgyzstan emerging as the Man-of-the-Match, scoring 12 attacks from 33 attempts and three blocks.
Kavishka Madushanka was Sri Lanka’s best player scoring 18 points including 15 attacks during their losing efforts.