By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 10: Nepali eves made off a flying start at Asian Senior Central Zone Women’s Volleyball Championship 2019 registering a straight 3-0 victory over Afghanistan at Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh on Sunday.
Nepali eves who were also prepared for the upcoming South Asian Games (SAG) had registered a 25-4, 25-9 and 25-6 comfortable victory over Afghanistan.
The Nepali women’s volleyball team had travelled to Bangladesh from the close-camp of the SAG. The 13th edition of the SAG has been scheduled to be held from 1st to 10th December in Kathmandu and Pokhara.
Pratibha Mali was declared the Player of the Match for her wonderful performance against the Afghani rivals. Mali who played throughout the match put up a convincing performance. She had also received a mobile set from the host in rewards as the player of the match.
The title favourite Nepal dominated the Afghani players winning all three sets comfortably. Afghani players failed to collect double digit points in any of three sets.
With the victory over Afghanistan, Nepal grabbed three points from a match while host Bangladesh had three points after beating the Maldives who have two points while Kyrgyzstan had a only one point. Similarly, Afghanistan has been at the bottom of the standing with zero point from two matches they played.
The six of Nepal players, Niruta Thaguna, Punam Chand, Sunita Khadka, Salina Shrestha, Sofia Pun and Janaki Bhandari debuted their international match against the Afghani rivals. Team coach Jagdish Bhatta had fielded sic players in the second set of the one sided affairs for Nepal.
After the huge victory over Afghanistan, Coach Bhatta said that he had fielded all six players after looking into their performance against Afghanistan.
“All six are capable to be fielded at any international match,” Coach Bhatt said.
Nepal will encounter Kyrgyzstan in their second match of the tournament on Monday while they will face host Bangladesh in their third match on Tuesday and will take on the Maldives in their last match of the league round on Wednesday.
Altogether five teams have taken part in the championship including host Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives and Nepal.
The top two teams from round robin will vie for the title.