India booked a berth in the last four stage of the men's volleyball tournament at the ninth SAF Games in Islamabad after beating Maldives in their second Group AA match on Wednesday.

India defeated the islanders 25-8, 25-19, 25-9 in 53 minutes.

On Tuesday, India got the better of Afghanistan 25-14, 25-10, 25-10.

With two victories India qualified for the semi-finals along with Bangladesh, who also won both their matches.

The two teams will clash in their final league encounter on Thursday.

Afghanistan and Maldives, who lost both their matches, will play their last league match.

In Group BB, Pakistan and Sri Lanka made it to the semi-finals with a win each against Nepal.

For the second day running, India played a lowly team in the group but seemed to continue to suffer from weak double blocks.

Though there was some improvement in their attack, they left lot of vacant spots in the backcourt.

Coach Sreedharan said he is happy with the victory and would like to take every match as it comes, but expressed his concern about his players' failure to close in for the blocks.

In today's match, India fielded its regulars. They won the first set easily but caved in the second, conceding several negative points.

It became a neck-and-neck affair and the Maldives narrowed the gap at 16-18.  Here Tom Joseph, Sanjay Kumar and Nadarajan combined well to pull away for a 25-19 win.

In the third set, the Indians closed the loose ends and the defence also showed improvement to seal victory.

Later, Bangladesh had a tough time beating a fighting Afghanistan 25-21, 25-14, 25-20 for their second win.

Yesterday, they managed to get past Maldives 15-25, 25-15, 25-15, 25-20. 

In Group BBB, Sri Lanka defeated Nepal 25-19, 25-21, 25-19 in 70 minutes. Sri Lanka's match against Pakistan tomorrow will decide the group winner.