Bahrain maintained their 100 percent record in the second round
of the men's volleyball competition at Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall, but
only after recovering from the loss of the first set to beat
Thailand 23-25, 29-27, 25-20, 25-17.
Thailand had received a bye directly into pool B, unlike Bahrain
who had to qualify through the preliminaries, and took the opening
set after a quick spike by captain Supachai Jit Jumroom and two
Bahraini service errors.
However Bahrain, who had beaten Hong Kong, China 3-0 on
Saturday, fought back and despite Jit Jumroom's attempts to force
the match into a final set it was not to be an opening victory for
Thailand. In the other pool B match, Hong Kong, China recovered
from that loss to Bahrain to beat Macau, China 25-23, 25-18, 25-19.
The first set was littered with errors by players receiving serves,
but some powerful blocking by Hui Pui Tak was key for Hong Kong,
China.
Macau, China tried to respond in the second set, but they lost
their composure and Hong Kong, China held firm and then led
throughout the third set, capitalising on some weak positioning, to
wrap up the straight sets victory.
India, the other team given direct entry to this stage, also
suffered a 3-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in pool A. The 25-21, 25-22,
23-25, 25-24 victory by the Saudis was their second of the round,
following a 3-2 defeat of Kuwait on Saturday.
Ahmed A Al Bakhet was the standout player for Saudi Arabia, top
scoring with 22 points in a match that lasted 1 hour 43 minutes.
Srinkanth Pakalapati scored 14 points for India in the defeat.
Saudi Arabia trainer Saleh Al Kaseim praised Al Bakhet
afterwards.
"Ahmed A Al Bakhet played very well; he played defence, blocked,
made points and attacks. Abdullah S Al Bahli also made many points.
All the players played very well today and this was their best
game," he said.
"The win was very important because there will be only one team
in our group who will advance to the next round."
(dohaasiangames.org December 5, 2006)