India face S Africa in Commonwealth semis  

India will take on South Africa in the Commonwealth Volleyball Championship semi-final on August 3 after beating Australia in a high voltage four-setter on Thursday to emerge top in the Group A.

After losing the first set 19-25, the Indians came back strongly and won the next three sets 25-21, 25-23 and 27-25 in a hard-fought match that lasted 96 minutes.

Australia, which had already booked their place in the last four by trouncing Nigeria in straight sets Wednesday, will now face Pakistan in the other semi-final.

India‘s coach G. Sridharan said, ‘We were a little sloppy mid way through the match and our blocks were not coming off well. But in the end we pulled it through.‘

His Aussie counterpart, Russel Borgeaud, admitted that the Aussies were erratic. ‘We made too many errors. We floundered in serves and spikes. We paid the price. India were the better side today.‘

Meanwhile, defending champions Canada had something to cheer about when they defeated New Zealand 25-10, 25-15, 25-16 to register their first win of the nine-nation tournament.

Canada had won the first edition of the tournament 26 years ago in London.