The India men’s volleyball team continued its impressive run, advancing to the quarter finals with a clinical 3-0 win over Taiwan at the Asian Games here on Friday.
Following their stunning win over South Korea, India notched up a 25-22, 25-22, 25-21 win over Taiwan in an hour and 25 minutes to progress to the 1-6th place playoffs. India will next face powerhouse Japan, who thrashed Kazakhstan 3-0, on Sunday.
“We expected a four-setter, but our team played well with man-to-man marking and improved a lot,” India captain Vinit told reporters after the match.
India trailed 6-10 early on, but Erin Varghese helped the side to reduce the gap to 11-13. India finally drew parity at 21-21 before Varghese and Ashwal Rai won the final two points to give India the lead.
India led 3-0 initially in the second set but Taiwan managed to level the scores at 17-17. However, India moved ahead in the final moments with consecutive points to close the issue 25-22.
India made a positive start in the decider, leading 10-4 at one stage. Taiwan again managed to narrow it down to 10-12 before drawing level at 14-14. But India nosed ahead 21-18 before sealing it 25-21.
“Pakistan had also defeated them (Taiwan) 3-0, so we were under pressure to defeat them,” India’s assistant coach Jaideep Sarkar said.
“With back-to-back wins over Korea and Chinese Taipei, this is a good morale-booster ahead of our match against Japan. We are not inferior to anyone. Japan are a good side and we expect a tough contest,” he added.
