Nepal crashed out after a 25-17, 25-19, 25-22 defeat against the Maldives in the last match of the round robin league held at the covered hall of Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu, while the Maldives entered the final as the league runner-up with six points following its second victory. Maldives will meet Sri Lanka in the final that thumped Afghanistan 25-20, 25-22, 25-13 to maintain its cent percent winning streak and finish on top of the table with nine points.[break]
A victory over the Maldives could have secured Nepal´s place in the final but the result left Nepal in third position with two points, one point ahead of Afghanistan in the four-team tournament. Earlier, Nepal had lost in straight sets to title favorite Sri Lanka after defeating Afghanistan in the inaugural match. Maldives had also defeated Afghanistan and lost to Sri Lanka in the league.
Nepal´s coach Kapil Kishor Shrestha attributed the defeat to inexperience of his players and said that both the home team and Maldives were of similar level. Shrestha, however, said that he would take full responsibility for the team´s defeat. "Lack of international experience and endurance, and short-term preparation of two weeks cost us," Shrestha said.
Failure to return serve on numerous occasions, lack of teamwork and effort, and poor performance by libero Pushpa Jung Malla were some of the reasons for the home team´s straight sets defeat. Coach Shrestha had not included skipper Kailash Bhatta in the starting line-up and brought him in as Milan Malla´s replacement only during the later stages of the third set.
"We had planned to earn more points through service and it worked perfectly," said Maldives coach Mohamed Sharaf who described his side´s win as tough. "Though we won in three sets, it was not that easy." Sharaf also lauded Nepal as a good team while echoing his Nepali counterpart. "Though there are good players in the Nepali team they lack experience. The only way to improve is to give them more international exposure."
In the first set, Nepal came from 1-4 to level the scores at 5-5 and was tied on 11-11 at one stage. But Nepal´s reliable spiker Sanjay Aryal made a couple of wrong spikes during the later stages as Nepal conceded the first set 25-17.
Maldives spiker Sajid Ismail and Abdul Kareem Ahmed were too strong for the Nepali defense and blocker in the second set. They earned 10 points apiece with their powerful spikes and some well-placed shots. Though Nepal put up a good fight until the later stages and managed to level the scores at 19-19, it failed to go beyond that as Maldives spiker Ismail and Ahmed earned two points apiece while Nepal gave away the winning point with an out-of-court placement.
The two teams were neck and neck for a large part of the third set as well. The score was tied at 17-17 at one point but Maldives quickly earned three regular points as Nepal gave away two points in block and another in returning serve. Maldives then earned four negative points and the winning point through a spike from Ismail.
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