KARACHI: Pakistan claimed bronze medal in kabbadi and whacked Kazakhstan in their third match of the hockey event in Asian Games.
Pakistan lost the semi-final of kabaddi to South Korea 24-27 and had to be content with the bronze medal — the first so far in the Games for the country. Pakistan had defeated Nepal 38-20 in game 15 of group D to setup the semi-final with South Korea.
Pakistan demolished Kazakhstan by 16-0 in their third group match. Toseeq Arshad scored the opening goal for Pakistan through a penalty corner in the second minute of the match. The Green-shirts displayed their fine skills as Muhammad Dilber scored the second goal in only the seventh minute.
Ali Shan netted another in the 13th minute to make it 3-0. Umar Bhutta scored another goal just before the end of the first quarter to make it 4-0. The second period remained mostly calm but heroics from Abu Bakar towards the end resulted in two goals in the last two minutes which made it 6-0.
In the third period, Pakistani players continued their aggressive play, not giving any chance to Kazakhstan. Three minutes into the third period, Toseeq scored his second goal from a penalty corner. Ali Shan scored in the 38th minute. It was followed by Abu Bakar’s hat-trick goal in the same minute to take the score to 9-0.
The fourth quarter saw a barrage of goals as the Green-shirts scored seven goals. Toseeq complete his hat-trick in the 46th minute to make it 10-0. Rizwan Ali nailed two consecutive goals — in the 51st and 55th minutes. He scored another goal through penalty corner in the 54th minute.
Umar scored the 13th goal in the 58th minute. The very next minute, Muhammad Atiq sounded the board. Toseeq converted a penalty corner in the 59th minute.
Mubashar Ali scored one in the dying moments of the match. This was the third consecutive win for Pakistan. Pakistan have won all matches with huge margins, without conceding a single goal in the tournament so far.
Kazakhstan is a low-ranked team but the Green-shirts have also been struggling and are currently ranked 13th.
The Green-shirts had been failing to score big even against low-ranked rivals. In three matches so far, the Green Shirts have scored 36 goals.
Pakistan manager Hasan Sardar told ‘The News’ that the psychological barrier of missing goal-scoring chances had been broken as forwards and drag-flickers had learned how to make the most of the chances.
“We had been losing matches because our forwards were not scoring and our penalty corner execution was weak. But we have worked hard in the training camps and the result is quite encouraging,” said the former Olympian.
“The Malaysians are tough rivals. Their ranking is better than us but we won’t come under pressure,” said Sardar. “We have faced such teams as Olympic champions Argentina, world champions Australia and European champions Belgium. The match will be a real test for our forwards, defenders, PC specialists and the goalkeeper,” he added.
Pakistan face Malaysia on Sunday (tomorrow) at 6pm (PST).
In individual squash event for men, Ivan Yuen of Malaysia beat Asim Khan 11-9, 11-8, 12-10 in 42 minutes and top seed Saurav Ghosal from India defeated Tayyab Aslam 11-5, 11-3, 11-13, 11-8 in 47 minutes in the second round.
In the first round, Tayyab had thrashed Arhant Simha of Nepal 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 in 18 minutes.
Asim had smashed Natthakit Jivasuwan of Thailand 11-1, 11-5, 11-4 in 20 minutes.
Ahn Eun Tschan of Korea defeated Madina Zafar 11-6, 11-9, 11-4 in 23 minutes in the first round.
Catur Yuliana of Indonesia overpowered Faiza Zafar 7-11, 11-6, 11-8, 6-11, 14-12 in 45 minutes.
In 25-metre rapid fire pistol event for men, Pakistan’s Ghulam Mustafa Bashir scored 290 (99, 97, 94) in three rounds in the qualification stage one.
Khalil Akhtar scored 283 (98, 93, 92) in three rounds of the qualification stage one.
On Wednesday, Nadra Raees scored 1,125 (374 kneeling, 389 prone, and 362 standing) to claim the 28th position in the qualification round of 50 metre Rifle 3-positions event for women.
On Thursday, Aamer Iqbal scored 134 points (26, 26, 28, 27, 27) to claim the eighth position in the qualification round of Double Trap event for men.
Farrukh Nadeem grabbed the 11th position by scoring 133 points (28, 27, 26, 24, 28) in five rounds of qualification stage in Double Trap event for men.
In badminton, Saima Waqas and Rizwan Azam lost to the Japanese duo of Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino 7-21, 9-21 in 21 minutes in the pre-quarter-finals of mixed doubles category.
Azeem Sarwar was beaten by Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 13-21, 10-21 in 25 minutes in the second round of men’s singles category.
Irfan Bhatti was beaten by Chen Long of China 8-21, 10-21 in 26 minutes in the second round of men’s singles.
In women’s doubles, Ghazala Siddique and Saima Waqas were defeated by Japan’s Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo 3-21, 3-21 in 17 minutes in the pre-quarter-finals.
On Wednesday, Pakistan lost to Japan 19-45 in the pre-quarter-finals of fencing epee event.
In handball, Pakistan lost their Group 3 match against India 27-28.
In the first half, Pakistan scored 12 goals and India 14. Pakistan scored 15 goals in the second half and India 14.
Pakistan are third in the group with one win and two losses. Pakistani lost to Chinese Taipei and won against Indonesia.
In Sailing, Najeebullah Khan stood 11th with 11 racing points in Laser Standard category.
Raja Qasim Abbas stood seventh in RS:X category with seven racing points in Race 1.
In Open Laser 4.7 category, Mohammad Awais stood 19th with 19 racing points in Race 1. In Race 2 he went down to 22nd position with 22 racing points.
In 470 men category, the pair of Khalid Hussain and Rehmanullah stood 9th with nine racing points.
In swimming, Bisma Khan secured the seventh position in the Heat 2 of 50 metre freestyle category. She covered the distance in 28.08 seconds.
In 50 metre breaststroke category for men, Mohammad Hamza stood last in Heat 2 with 33.20 seconds’ time.
In women’s 200 metre individual medley, Mishael Aisha stood fifth with 2:38.70 minutes in Heat 1.
In men’s 4x100 metre medley relay, Pakistan achieved seventh position in Heat 2 with the total timing of 4:10.92 minutes.
