Pakistan women start title defence with win

National cricket team outplays Thailand by 51 runs in quarter-final.

KARACHI:

Syeda Nain Fatima Abidi’s dazzling strokes guided Pakistan women’s cricket team to a successful launch of their title defence at the Asian Games, defeating Thailand by 51 runs in the opening match on Wednesday.

“Thailand were not easy to face as their fielding and bowling was good,” captain Sana Mir told The Express Tribune from Korea. “However, we prevailed and I think it’s good practice before the semi-final against China.”

Instead of the usual 20 overs, the match was limited to 14 due to weather conditions.

Nain scored run-a-ball 40 and her 31-run partnership with Bismah Maroof helped Pakistan post 97-5.

Chasing 98, Thailand were restricted to 46-7 in their allotted overs as Asmavia Iqbal took two wickets, giving away six runs. Sana, Nida Rashid, Qanita Jalil and Sadia Yousaf took one wicket each.

“We’ll try to avoid the mistakes made today [Wednesday] when we suffered three run-outs,” added Sana.

Squash

Pakistan men’s squash team continued its title defence at the Asian Games, outlasting Korea 3-0 to win their second Pool A match on Wednesday.

Farhan Zaman defeated Seungjoon Lee 3-1 in the first singles match, while Danish Atlas downed Joongwon Hwang with the same score as Pakistan secured a 2-0 lead.

Farhan Mehboob sealed the win after defeating Jaejin Yoo 3-0 to ensure an unbeaten streak for his team. On the other hand, Pakistan women’s team lost to China 2-1 in its first group match and then 3-0 to India in their second.

Badminton

Pakistan’s badminton team defeated Macau 2-0 in the men’s doubles round of 32, while the women’s team also lost to Macau with the same margin.

In the singles matches, Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti beat Nepal’s Ratna Jit Tamang 2-1 in the men’s round of 64 while Palwalsha Bashir overcame Maldives’ Aishath Afnan Rasheed 2-0 in the women’s round of 32.

Mahnoor Shahzad lost to Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 2-0 in the same event.

Tennis

Pakistan’s top tennis player Aqeel Khan won his first-round match at the men’s singles event as he defeated Saudi Arabia’s Ammar Alhaqbani 6-4, 6-2 and progressed to the second round.

Meanwhile, Ushna Suhail lost her women’s singles first-round match 6-0, 6-2 to China’s Pei Chi Li.

Ushna then teamed up with Sara Mansoor in the women’s doubles event but the duo lost 6-4, 6-0 to India.

Boxing

Nadir Hussain initiated the boxing competitions for Pakistan with a win in the men’s 56kg round of 32, defeating Bhutan’s Sigyel Phub 2-1.

In another bout, Ali Ahmed defeated Kuwait’s Ali Muzaffar 30-27 in the 60kg event.

Rowing, weightlifting and shooting

Pakistan’s Abdul Rehman finished fourth in the overall ranking of the men’s lightweight single scull rowing event and Muhammad Habib Asghar finished fifth in the men’s 85 kg event out of seven participants in Group B.

Ghulam Mustafa Bashir finished 19 out of 24 contestants with 560 points in two stages of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qualification round.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2014.

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