Pakistan hammer Kazakhstan 16-0

JAKARTA: Pakistan overwhelmed hapless Kazakhstan 16-0 in their third match of the 2018 Asian Games hockey tournament at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex here Friday.

The Greenshirts have been on a roll in the tournament. In three matches thus far they have scored 36 goals — 10 each against Thailand and Oman — and have yet to concede one. Kazakhstan, not known for their field hockey talent, seemed helpless against Pakistan on Friday.

Pakistan led by six goals at the half time and hammered 10 more in the next 30 minutes.Tauseeq Arshad was the leading scorer with four goals. Abubakr Mahmood netted three while Ali Shan, Rizwan Senior and Umar Bhutta added two each. Dilber, Atif Arshad and Mubashar Ali chipped in with one goal apiece.

World No 13 Pakistan’s next match is against the 12th ranked Malaysia on Sunday (tomorrow).Both the sides have won all their three matches till now, and with convincing margins. But Pakistan lead the pool because of a better goal difference.

Meanwhile, Pakistan won their first medal of the Asian Games when the kabaddi team took the bronze. Pakistan lost 24-27 to South Korea while India were beaten 18-27 by Iran in the semi-finals. Both losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals.

Iran claimed kabaddi gold medals in both the men’s and women’s competitions. They beat India 27-24 in the women’s final and South Korea 26-16 in the men’s decider.Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie lay flat on the court with disbelief after his shock win over top-seeded Chinese Shi Yuqi in front of a raucous home crowd at the Asian Games badminton Friday.

Christie, 20, edged out world number two Yuqi 21-19, 19-21, 21-17 in an enthralling one-hour eight-minute battle in the first round of the regional Olympics in Jakarta.

Ranked 15th in the world, Christie matched his senior rival serve-to-serve and smash-to-smash as a partisan crowd erupted in deafening applause at each Indonesian point.Despite the difference in their world rankings, Christie now leads Yuqi 4-3 in head-to-head encounters.

Yuqi argued with the umpire on a couple of line decisions and his frustration was clearly visible. Yuqi rallied to win the second game but Christie kept his calm to take the third game and set up a round-of-16 meeting with Thailand’s Khosit Phetpradab.

In another major upset, Hong Kong’s Vincent Wong Wing Ki served out Indian heavyweight Kidambi Srikanth 23-21, 21-19 in 41 minutes.

Srikanth, who last year became the first Indian to win four Super Series world tour titles in a season, was undone by a determined Wing Ki.Japan’s former badminton world No 1 Akane Yamaguchi has vowed to put her poor team performances behind her as she bids for individual gold, after she won her opening match Friday without breaking a sweat.

The 21-year-old Yamaguchi, who in April became the first ever Japanese shuttler to achieve the global top ranking, humbled Afghanistan’s Lidaa Saraj 21-0, 21-3 in just 17 minutes in Jakarta.

It was her first win in this edition of the Games after losing three straight games in the team event. Despite her losses Japan won the team gold after overcoming Asian powerhouse China, and Yamaguchi praised her team-mates’ attitude.

“I don’t know if I changed my mind (from the team event) or not but my team-mates said, ‘we won so never mind’. That helped me switch gears,” Yamaguchi told reporters after her round-of-32 win.Yamaguchi had lost to India’s PV Sindhu, Indonesian favourite Gregoria Mariska Tunjung and then Chen Yufei of China in the team event.If she defeats Nepal’s Nangsal Tamang on Saturday, Yamaguchi is expected to meet world number five Yufei again in the individual quarter-finals.