According to team coach Badshah Gul, Pakistan were leading 31-30 with only seconds to go and had Abrar been caught, the scores would have been level the game gone into extra time. Pakistan will now take on Iran – who beat Sri Lanka 50-23 – in the final today.
“Abrar made a tremendous effort to clinch a nail-biting victory for Pakistan,” Gul told The Express Tribune from Haiyang. “He made sure that the scores didn’t get levelled otherwise extra-time would’ve been a different phase altogether and the game could’ve gone either way.”
‘We were under pressure at the start’
Gul revealed that his team were under pressure in the opening minutes as the Indians came out of the blocks very strong. However, the Pakistan team – Nasir Ali, Wajid Ali, Mohammad Khalid, Akhlaq Hussain and Abrar Hussain – stood firm to sustain the challenge and then turned on the heat to in the second period to emerge victorious.
“We’ve a got a minor injury concern as skipper Nasir is injured while the others are a bit tired. But we’re hopeful that we’ll come out on top against Iran to make our nation proud with a gold medal.”
Manager applauds impressive show
Earlier, Pakistan topped their group with three wins while Sri Lanka finished second with four. In the other group, Iran claimed four points while India got two. Team manager Brigadier Iqtidar lauded his side’s effort after the team knocked out the holders.
“It can’t get better than this — to win against India and send the defending champions crashing out of the competition,” he said.
“The prestige of both countries was at stake but thankfully there wasn’t any bad incident despite emotions running high in both camps.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2012.
COMMENTS (10)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1710998259-0/pti-(1)1710998259-0-270x192.webp)
Hope this was not fixed. Beach Kabaddi is not a Punjabi Sport as there are no beaches in British Punjab.
@Neeraj Vilash: Totally agree. I also wanted to write the same minus the part on 'over-enthusiastic reporting' (even though over-enthusiasm would not have been too inappropriate given Kabaddi is the national sport of India). As the word is normally used in sports reporting, this reporter just used it here too without really thinking twice.
“Abrar made a tremendous effort to clinch a nail-biting victory for Pakistan,” Gul told The Express Tribune from Haiyang.
ET got emotional writers. The title does not give clear picture. Match was close and India was not far from beating us.
Somebody needs tell ET that there is a difference between thrashing and a close contest
Good effort by the Pakistani side of the Punjabis !!!
@Umer: Thank you
@SJ: 3 wins 6 points 2 wins 4 points
First of all congratulations to team Pakistan.
Secondly, the headline said Pak thrashed India, this is not thrashing, it was a close game.
Later in the news we were further confused by this statement, " Earlier, Pakistan topped their group with three wins while Sri Lanka finished second with four." How did this happen?
Congratulations to Pakistan ....
B t w .... the Title is Misleading .... 'Thrash' is used when the winning margins are severe, when one sides comprehensively beats the other .... which is not quiet the case in the reported match .
Over enthusiastic reporting ...
Congrats Pakistan team