Pakistan’s men’s volleyball team beat India in straight sets on Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the 2026 Asian Games, winning 25-19, 25-23, 25-18 in a quarter-final at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Gymnasium in Japan. The result knocked India out of the tournament and, according to Gulf News, puts Pakistan on course for their best Asian Games volleyball finish since they won bronze back in 1962.
The win was built around outside hitter Murad Khan, who led Pakistan’s attack with 19 points, according to ProPakistani, Khelnow and Gulf News, which also credited Ali Usman Faryad Ali with 13 points and Mohammad Hammad with a further 9. Dawn’s own report put Murad Khan’s tally slightly higher at 22 points; the gap is noted here since it could not be independently resolved, but every outlet agreed he was comfortably Pakistan’s top scorer and the difference-maker on the night.
Pakistan never trailed by more than a point after the opening exchanges. The first set was the most one-sided, with Pakistan reaching 70 percent spike efficiency against India’s 41 percent as they pulled away from 8-8 to close it out 25-19. India fought back hardest in the second set, leading 19-16 and later saving a set point, but Pakistan held their nerve to take it 25-23 after 34 minutes — the longest set of the match. The third set was Pakistan at their most dominant, racing to a 17-10 lead before sealing the match in 25 minutes when India captain Ashwal Rai’s smash went into the net.
| Set | Score | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Set 1 | Pakistan 25 – India 19 | 23 minutes |
| Set 2 | Pakistan 25 – India 23 | 34 minutes |
| Set 3 | Pakistan 25 – India 18 | 25 minutes |
The defeat ends a 40-year wait that India had hoped to end in Japan; their only Asian Games volleyball medal came in Seoul in 1986, and Thursday’s loss means they will instead play classification matches for fifth to eighth place, their captain Ashwal Rai finishing as the team’s top scorer with 9 points.
Pakistan’s run to the last four has not been straightforward. They were runners-up in their pool after going 3-1 against Kazakhstan and 3-0 against Uzbekistan, before a 3-0 loss to hosts Japan in their final group match, per ProPakistani. Beating India in the quarter-final was by some distance their toughest test so far, and sets up what Gulf News and multiple other outlets describe as Pakistan’s best shot at an Asian Games volleyball medal since 1962, when they last took bronze.
Pakistan will face the winner of South Korea’s quarter-final against Iran in the semi-final, scheduled for Friday, October 2, 2026, according to Gulf News. The specific time and venue for that match were not available at the time of writing.
The win comes a day after Pakistan also set up an Asian Games cricket final against India, meaning the two countries’ Games campaigns are now colliding across multiple sports in the same week.
Our Opinion
A straight-sets win over a fancied Indian side is a genuinely good night for Pakistani volleyball, a sport that gets a fraction of the attention cricket does despite producing moments like this one; the bigger question is whether a run to the semi-finals translates into any lasting investment in the game once the Asian Games headlines fade, since Pakistan’s volleyball programme has gone over six decades without turning promise like this into a medal — something worth watching as closely as Friday’s semi-final itself.
