LAHORE, July 27: Pakistan International Airlines, Mari Gas, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Army have confirmed their places in semifinals of the first national squash team championship at end of pool matches at the Punjab Squash Complex on Sunday. In all, 12 teams participated in the pool matches.

The teams had been divided into two pools “A” and “B”. From pool “A” PIA got the first position while Army second. Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan and University Grants Commission gained upto sixth position, respectively.

From pool “B”, Mari Gas and PAF earned the first and second position, respectively. Civil Aviation Authority, Sindh, Railways and Navy secured the position upto sixth. PIA will meet PAF in the first prefinals on Monday followed by another semifinals between Mari Gas and Army.

Meanwhile, six matches were decided on Sunday. PIA got a walk over against UGC, while competitions were held in other five matches.

Army survived a scare before beating Punjab by two matches to one.

A prominent youngster Yasir Butt gave Punjab a 1-0 lead when he defeated Zubair Ali Khan in a match lasting 39 minutes. The score in Yasir’s favour was 9-2, 4-9, 9-8, 9-2.

Yasir had won the first game rather easily 2-9. But Zubair was in aggressive mood and equalised the score registering a 9-4 win in the second. But it was last the laugh for Zubair as Yasir on the rampage grabbed victories in the next two games.

But Khalid Atlas of Army defeated Haider Jamal’s easily 4-9, 9-4, 9-3, 9-2 in 55 minutes to level the scores 1-1

In the all-important third encounter, Asghar Ali of Army outlasted a fright to overcome spirited Asghar Ali in five games encounter — the lone match which extended to the maximum limit on Sunday.

Asghar won in 88 minutes with the score of 5-9, 9-3, 9-4, 8- 10, 9-6. Asghar after losing the first game had made cemented his position by winning the next two games by wide margins. But Farzan again created a hurdle when he won the well contested fourth game by a close margin 10-8 to leave the result on the decisive fifth game.

Following were the results:

PIA got walk over against UGC. NWFP beat Balcohsitan 2-1: Shahab Hussain (Balochistan) got walk over against Waseem Shad (NWFP), Wakeel Khan (NWFP) beat Rizwan Ahmed (Balochistan) 9-4, 9- 0, 10-8, Bilal Zaman beat Salman Nasir 9-5, 9-2, 9-8.

Sindh beat Navy 3-0: Azam Khan beat Rehmatullah 9-0, 9-4, 9-5, Jehanzeb Masood beat Shakeel Haider 9-4, 9-0, 9-3, Asif Khan beat Saif-ur-Rehman 9-1, 9- 0, 9-2.

Army beat Punjab 2-1: Yasir Butt (Punjab) bt Zubair Ali Khan (Army) 9-2, 4-9, 9-8, 9-2: Khalid Atlas (Army) beat Haider Jamal (Punjab) 4-9, 9-4, 9-3, 9-2: Asghar Ali beat Farzan Rashid 5-9, 9-3, 9-4, 8- 10, 9-6.

Mari Gas bt Railways 3-0: Farrukh Zaman beat Faisal Sarwar 9-0, 9-7, 9-2, Khayal Mohammad beat Naveed Atlas 9-2, 9-0, 9-7, Saeed Hassan beat Salahuddin 9-0, 9-1, 9-3.

PAF beat CAA 3-0: Safeer Khan beat Majid Khan 10-9, 1-9, 9-5, 10-8, Farhan Mehboob beat Basit Ashfaq 9-2, 9-7, 9-3, Naveed Atlas beat Aqib Hanif 9-2, 9-3, 9-0.