Pakistan edge India in volleyball

KARACHI: Pakistan defeated India in their volleyball match of the Asian Games by 3-1 on Tuesday.

The scores were 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-23. The two teams played their hardest to maintain prestige. It was not surprising that the scores rallied 8-8, 10-10 to 18-18, after Prabagaran’s block failed to hold the spike of Sheraz.

India managed to withstand Pakistan’s pressure, winning the first set with a 25-21 lead after Aimal Khan’s spike went wide.

At the beginning of the second set, Pakistan took the initiative through a combination of fast attacks with adroit blocks.Hamid Movahedi’s team immediately took advantage of leading 8-3 and continued until 18-11, which put Indian further behind.

Although India tried to catch up, Pakistan proved to be more dominant, ending the second set 25-21 through the spike of Raza Mubashir.

A rallying score was repeated in the third set, with the two teams exchanging attacks — Pakistan through Aimal Khan and India through Charles Jerome Vinith.

India, leading up until the middle of the third set, failed to maintain their advantage and Pakistan took over the lead 16-15 before a second technical time out.

Pakistan led the set and added another point to the scoreboard, thanks to a perfect block by Aimal off the spike of Vinith.

Pakistan led 25-21. The beginning of the fourth set was tight, with Pakistan leading 8-6 through a crossing spike by Murad Jehan.

India’s persistence began to bear fruit as they led 20-19 after Raza Mubashir’s serve failed to cross the net.

However, Pakistan increased the pressure against India to win the fourth set. Pakistan closed the match by scoring 25-23 in the fourth set.

In earlier matches, Pakistan lost 0-3 to South Korea and India lost 1-3 to Japanese.

In squash, fourth seeds Pakistan beat ninth seeds Philippines 3-0 in a group A match.

In the first match, Tayyab Aslam defeated Robert Andrew Garcia 11-4, 11-3, 14-12; Israr Ahmad beat David William Pelino 11-6, 11-3, 11-6; and Ammad Fareed won against Reymark Begornia 11-9, 11-7, 11-5. Pakistan will face top seeds Hong Kong on Wednesday (today).

In women’s event, fourth seeds Japan defeated ninth seeds Pakistan 3-0 in a group match. Satomi Watanabe thrashed Madina Zafar 11-7, 11-7, 11-1; Misaki Kobasyashi beat Faiza Zafar 11-6, 11-5, 11-3; Risa Sugimoto won against Riffat Khan 11-3, 11-2, 8-11.

In athletics, Uzair Rehman stood fifth with a timing of 21.70 seconds in the qualification round of men’s 200 metre race.

Mohammad Shahbaz took sixth position in the same round of the said category with a timing of 21.91 seconds.

In baseball, Pakistan were beaten by China 3-16 in a group match.

In bridge, the pair of Asad Maqbool and Ghalib Ali scored 328 points in the qualification round one of men’s pair category. Nadir Ali and Asadullah Khan scored 318 points. The duo of Farrukh Liaquat and Gulzar Ahmad scored 296 points.

In the qualification round two, Asad/Ghalib scored 764 points, Nadir/Asadullah scored 702.80 points, and Farrukh/Gulzar scored 655 points.

In Kurash, Zunair bin Zahir lost to Billy Sugara of Indonesia 0-10 in the round 32 of men’s 90kg category.

Syed Samiullah was beaten by Upendra Thapa 0-1 in the round 32 of men’s 66kg category.

Mohammad Shehroze was defeated by Al Rolan Llamas of the Philippines 0-10 in the round 32 of men’s 66kg category.

In sepak-takraw, Singapore beat Pakistan 2-0 in a group match.

In soft tennis, Eraj Batool lost Noelle Conchita Corazon of the Philippines 0-4 in women’s singles group match.

She also lost 0-4 to Mi Hyang of Korea in a group match.

Varisha Khan was beaten by Chinmurun Bataa of Mongolia 0-4 in a group match.

In another group match, she was beaten by Dares Srirungreang of Thailand 0-4. She lost yet another group match 0-4 to Princess Lorben of the Philippines.

In men’s event, Mohammad Yahya was beaten by Hayato Funemizu of Japan 0-4 in a group match of men’s singles. He lost another group match 0-4 to Jinwoong Kim of Korea.

Ebad Sarwar was defeated by Enkhjin Bolortuya of Mongolia 0-4 in the said category. He lost another group match to Prima Simpatiaji of Indonesia 0-4.