Already assured of a semi-final berth, hosts Nepal succumbed to a 3-1 set defeat against India in their last group match to progress into the semi-final of CAVA Women’s Challenge Cup volleyball as runners up on Wednesday.

Nepal lost the third and the last group stage match 12-25, 24-26, 25-21, 21-25 against Group ‘A’ toppers India, who marched into the semi-final winning all three group games maintaining their dominance over the home team.

Nepal had lost to India twice in the 2019 South Asian Games (SAG) — in the group stage and also in the final.

India wrapped up with nine points and Nepal with six points after equal three games. Nepal and India had both edged Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan in their first two games to confirm semi-final berth before their last group match.

The outcome meant Nepal meet Group ‘B’ winners Kazakhstan in the semi-final while India set a last four date against Uzbekistan in the semi-final on Friday.

“It was a nice game apart from the first set. It is difficult to execute the game plan but we did very good after the first set,” Nepal’s coach Jan De Brandt said after the game. “We forget everything that we had prepared tactically. But it was nice to see the team could recover in other sets,” said the Belgian.

Nepal, the champions of the last two editions formerly known as AVC Asian Central Zone Championship, were off to a poor start in the first sets. They came up with vulnerable shows in block, defend and spike. India were leading 10-1 at a moment in the first set before finishing with a mammoth 13 points cushion.

The second set was very competitive from the start with scores tied on 11, 18 and 21 points and Nepal also led 23-21 at a moment before losing it.

“India are a physically strong side and we have to play almost to the limit of perfection to beat them,” said De Brandt. “Leaving aside the first set, the performance in other sets gave us the confidence that we can play good against very physical teams. We didn’t even play a preparation game against such teams.”

Congratulating India, the Belgian said that Nepal were hopeful of meeting against them in the final.

The third set went neck-to-neck until the later stage with scores tied on 17 points at a moment. But Nepal managed to widen the gap after that to seal the victory. The fourth set also remained competitive with scores tied 20 points. But after that India managed to pull four points in a row before sealing a 3-1 sets victory.

“We learned a lot of things from the defeat against India. Had we got the opportunity to play against such a team in practice, it could have been easier for us to fight,” said Nepal captain Aruna Shahi. “Failure to execute the game plan from the beginning made it difficult for us, though we adapted to it at a later stage.”

India coach Pritam Singh Chauhan said that his side was able to dominate Nepal through blocks in the first set as the home team were playing high balls. “Nepal changed strategy from the second set and that worked very much. Nepal is a good team and so is my team. We both need international exposure for betterment,” he said.

Indian captain Nirmal, who was also the member of the team that won 2019 SAG gold said that there was a lot of improvement in Nepal teams. “They are playing at a good speed and doing really well on serve,” she said.

In Group ‘B’ game, Kazakhstan saw off Uzbekistan 24-26, 25-16, 25-11, 25-18 to finish on top of the group with a maximum nine points from three games. Uzbekistan finished runners up on six points. The other match of the group, Sri Lanka beat Maldives in straight sets of 25-18, 25-13, 26-24 to pull off their first win and finish third on three points.