July 30, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1424

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LAHORE, July 29: Pakistan International Air Lines (PIA) overcame the loss of Shahid Zaman won the first first national squash team championship defeating Mari Gas in the final 2-1 at the Punjab Squash Complex on Tuesday.

Pakistan No.2 Shahid put PIA under pressure when he went down against 10th seed Khayal Mohammad in a 97-minute long battle.

But top seed Mansoor Zaman and Arshad Iqbal Barki ended Mari Gas’s hopes of upsetting the odds by winning their matches.

Shahid who had also lost his previous match to Farhan Mehboob of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in the semifinal 10-8, 9-0, again looked a player of out sorts as Khayal succeeded in extending the match to fifth game before winning 7-9, 10-8, 4-9, 9-5, 9-6.

Shahid played an aggressive game but was erratic at some moments and made unforced errors. Lanky, Khayal on the other had played sensibly and made less errors.

Shahid won the first game after Khayal chased him till 7-7.

Khayal and Shahid fought for each point to win the second game. After locking at 5-5, 6-6 and then 8-8, Khayal earned levelled the match as Shahid hit the board twice.

Shahid showed a great display of his powerful strokes in the third game which left Khayal standing to claim the second game and lead 2-1.

Shahid failed to maintain his form in the next two games as Khayal was offensive winning both the games with wide margins to cause and upset.

Mansoor, however, needed only 37 minutes to equalise the score 1-1 when he defeated Furrukh Zaman comfortably 9-4, 9-4, 9- 3 in an one-sided affairs.

In the all important match, Arshad surprizingly lost the first game but roared back to win the next three gamesin 67 minuutes for 1-9, 9-4, 9-5, 9-5 to make sure PIA lift trophy.

Shahnawaz outplayed Arshad by winning the first game after dropping only one point. But it was last laugh for Shahnawaz because Arshad presented high class game to win the remaining three games easily to win the match and the final, also.

Earlier, Army beat Pakistan Air Force 3-0 to gain the third position.

Results:

PIA beat Mari Gas 2-1 (final): Khayal Mohammad (Mari Gas) bt Shahid Zaman (PIA) 7-9, 10-8, 4-9, 9-5, 9-6; Mansoor Zaman (PIA) bt Furrukh Zaman 9-4, 9-4, 9-3; Arshad Iqbal Barki (PIA) bt Shahnawaz (Mari Gas) 1-9, 9-4, 9-5, 9-5.

Army beat PAF 3-0 (Third and fourth position match): Khalid Atlas bt Farhan Mahboob 10-8, 9-4, 9-0; Asghar Khan bt Naveed Atlas 9-6, 9-1, 9-4; Zubair Ali Khan bt Safeer Khan 9-3, 9-5.