KATHMANDU, April 22: The Nepali national volleyball team, who went to Bangladesh to take part in the fourth AVC Central Zone Senior Asian Men’s Championship after a longtime preparations, has faced a 3-1 set defeat in the first match at the hands of the host Bangladesh on Saturday. 

Despite winning the first set 24-26, Nepal lost the match as it failed to maintain a consistent performance in the other three sets at the Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in Dhaka. Bangladesh took advantage of the poor coordination of block and receive and made a brilliant comeback from the second set to win all the remaining sets which helped the host on its course to reach the last four. The defending champion Bangladesh won the other three sets 25-18, 25-14, 25-21. 

Nepal will now take on Maldives in the second Group A match on Sunday, while Bangladesh will face Maldives in the last group stage match on Tuesday. 

Nepal head coach Jagadish Bhatta expressed his confidence that even though they lost the first game, they will play well against Maldives. “Despite winning the first set, we could not play well in the remaining sets because of lack of self confidence. There was a problem in our receive and block again,’’ Bhatta said. “We will improve on those aspects and are confident to win the match against Maldives.’’ 

Nepal became third in the third edition of the tournament last year. There were five teams last year, while an extra team is added this year. 

The group A consists of Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives, while Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan are pitted in Group B. The top two teams of each group will advance into the semis.

 
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