COLOMBO: India thundered its way to the men's volleyball final with a stunning 25-21, 25-16, 25-16 win over arch-rival Pakistan at the South Asian Games at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.

The Indian team has been performing well and has not conceded a single game do far. A reflection of its confidence-level was seen in the way India demolished Pakistan in the semifinals. India is the defending champion, but Pakistan had come up trumps in their last two meetings in recent times.

Neutral setting

To that extent this was a grudge match, and in a neutral setting the pressure was a bit less. Subba Rao, Tom Joseph, Srikanth and Kapil Dev contributed effectively. But Tom deserves special mention for his all-round show. Pakistan looked jaded and slowly faded out.

After the first game, when points were traded with both teams smashing — Srikanth and Tom in particular for India and Zafari Iqbal and Ihsan for Pakistan — the balance tilted in India's favour.

Be it the rock-like net blocks — where Kapil, Tom, Srikanth and the tall Subba Rao excelled — or in spiking, the Indians kept the scoreboard ticking. Commendable support came from libero Sivarajan.

In the space of 67 minutes, India had completed the job and who else but the women Indian players led the cheers, waving the India tricolour up in the gallery.

In the other semifinal, host Sri Lanka, dropped the opening game before prevailing over Bangladesh 25-27, 25-21, 25-14, 25-13.

India rounded off its shooting campaign with two more gold medals, with Imran Khan being the architect for the happy tidings in the 50m rifle 3 position event. In all, India won 18 gold, 10 silver and five bronze medals.

Earlier, Pakistan took both the individual and team golds in the 25m standard pistol event. India's C.K. Choudhary and Ashok Pandit had to settle for the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Mixed luck in squash

Expectedly India won the gold in the women's section of the squash event, beating Sri Lanka 2-0 while the men lost to Pakistan 2-0 to take the silver.

Off colour in football

At the police ground, which was the makeshift venue for the football bronze medal match, Nepal defeated a dispirited India 2-0. After the loss to the host the other day, the under-20 players looked totally off colour.

Nepal seized the opportunity to pump in two goals in the space of two minutes. Jamun Rai scored first in the 3rd minute and Pradeep Maharjan added one more two minutes later.

The results: Shooting: Men: 25m standard pistol: 1. M.M. Tabassum (Pak) 562; 2. C.K. Choudhary (Ind) 556; 3. Ashok Pandit (Ind) 555; team: 1. Pakistan 1660; 2. India 1654 (C.K. Choudhary 556, Ashok Pandit 555, Kanchan Gurung 543); 3. Sri Lanka 1591; 50m rifle 3 positions: 1. Imran Khan (Ind) 1241 (1146+95); 2. Manoj Kumar (Ind) 1228 (1138+90); 3. Mangala Samarakoon (SRI) 1219.4 (1125+94.4); team: 1. India 3407 (Imran Khan, Manoj Kumar, Sushil Ghaley); 2. Pakistan 3347; 3. Sri Lanka 3298.

Squash (final): Men: Pakistan bt India 2-0 (Mansoor Zaman bt Gaurav Nandrajog 9-1, 9-1, 9-2; Aamir Atlas Khan bt Harinderpal Singh 9-4, 9-2, 9-0). Bronze: Sri Lanka & Bangladesh.

Women: India bt Sri Lanka 2-0 (Joshna Chinappa bt Tehani Guruge 9-5, 9-2, 9-2; Dipika Pallikal bt Nirasha Guruge 9-4, 8-10, 9-4, 9-4). Bronze: Pakistan & Nepal.

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