Chiba (Japan), (Asian independent) India succumbed to their second successive defeat in Group A preliminary league, losing to Qatar 3-0 (22-25, 14-25, 20-25) at Chiba Port Arena, Japan, and all but ending their hopes of finishing the top eight in the competition.
The Indian team had started its campaign with a loss to Bahrain on Sunday and had to win against Qatar to maintain their chances of finishing in the top two in the four-team group. India now play their last league match against defending champions Japan on Tuesday.
Qatar is ranked 31 in the World while India have slumped to 90 following Sunday’s defeat to Bahrain. The Indians put up a good fight in the first set but Qatar dominated the second set.
For India, spiker Charles Jerome Vinith was the top scorer with 19 points while Chirag and Subham Chaudhary contributed five and four points respectively.
For Qatar, Ibrahim Ibrahim top-scored with 12 points while Ribeiro Renan scored 8 points and Dahi WW Hammad Mubarak contributed seven.
India now face Japan in their last preliminary league match and have to beat the nine-time champions in straight sets. They will also have to hope that the other matches in the group too end in 3-0 wins so as to harbour chances of making it to the quarterfinal league.
In volleyball, teams winning 3-0 or 3-1 get the full three points while teams winning 3-2 get two points and the losing team bags one point.
