Sri Lanka stretched the favourites Bangladesh to the maximum before going down in a gruelling five-setter in their 2022 Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Men’s Under-23 Championship match played at the Shaheed Suhrawardi National Indoor Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka.
Bangladesh maintained a perfect run in the round-robin preliminaries to top the standings with eight points from three straight wins, followed by Kyrgyzstan with five points from two wins against one loss and Sri Lanka came in third place overall with four points from one win against two losses, while winless Nepal finished on the bottom fourth position with one point awarded.
Sri Lanka held a 2-1 advantage and were poised to run away with the match but unfortunately let it slip through their fingers as they began to make unforced errors in the fourth set.
Both sides took turns unleashing on several powerful blows in the decider, but the host side fared better on the home stretch to capture the hotly contested set 15-13 and the match.