Indian spikers celebrate after winning a point against Australia at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Thursday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: India emerged group toppers in the second Commonwealth Volleyball Championship for men, outsmarting Australia in a nail-biting tie at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Thursday.

The hosts took 96 minutes to edge past the Aussies 19-25, 25-21, 25-23, 27-25 — their first victory over the men from Down Under in a decade. India will thus face South Africa in the first semi-final on Friday, followed by Australia’s clash with Pakistan.

The Indians started on a positive note but the Aussies had a different game plan in place to put the hosts on the backfoot. Faulty serves coupled with poor blocking cost India vital points as Australia came back three points down to clinch the set 25-19.

Spikers Paul Carroll and Benjamin Hardy were brilliant while libero Philip Desalvo had some dazzling show with the Indians slowly losing their focus despite being pegged on by the 6,500-strong partisan crowd.

G. Pradeep and Sube Singh — India’s best blockers so far — along with the dependable spiker Sanjay Kumar were nowhere near their previous performance in the opening set.

In the second set, India rode better serves, blockings and touch game to come back into the match. Australia fought superbly, but their effort was not enough to deny India taking the set 25-21.

The third and fourth sets also saw both teams locked in a neck-to-neck fight. However, the hosts had the last laugh bagging the final two sets 25-23 and 27-25, respectively.

“We made some errors… But credit to the Indians who lifted their game well and came back strongly,” the Aussie coach Russell Borgeaud told a post match press conference.

“The Indians were consistent and that’s the key. In international matches, one or two misses make the difference.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka edged past Nigeria 25-15, 21-25, 25-17, 19-25, 15-13 in an earlier group A tie while Canada beat New Zealand 25-10, 25-15, 25-16 in group B.