Iran delighted cheering home fans with a convincing 25-22, 25-13, 25-21 victory over India to storm into the semi-finals of the 12th Asian Men’s U18 Volleyball Championship and secure their berth to contest the 2019 FIVB Men’s U19 Volleyball Championship.

India entered the court with two wins in Pool D plus a surprise victory over China in a classification playoff encounter on Tuesday, while Iran suffered a loss at the hands of Chinese Taipei in Pool B. Against the host side, India performed well with confidence capitalizing on the service faults of Iran and levelled at 21-21 but Iran, powered by captain Bardia Saadat, recovered and roared back mightily to close out the hard-fought first set 25-22, asianvolleyball.net reported.

Fired up by the pumping home atmosphere, Iran raced out of the blocks and stormed through to take the one-sided second set 25-13.

After winning two sets in a row, Iran were riding crests of confidence wave and despite putting up a brave fight by the formidable visitors, the Iranians still played brilliantly in the third set, which they won 25-21.

In this match, Bardia Saadat scored a match-high 15 points for Iran. The Iranians will test their mettle against title-holders Japan in the Thursday’s semi-finals, while the other semi-final clash sees Korea battle it out with Chinese Taipei.