AMMAN: Pakistan’s women and senior teams stormed into the final of the Bridge Federation of Asia and Middle East (BFAME) bridge championship at Petra Ball Room of Regency Palace Hotel here on Tuesday evening.

However, eight-time champions Indian women failed to reach the final for the first time –– thus making their unceremonious exit from the regional contest.

Led by Rubina Agha, Pakistan’s women team comprising Zeenat Azwer, Fizza Adamjee, Qudsia Doosa, and Najam Abid lost their last and 15th round match 7-23 to leaders and defending champions Jordan but they still finished second in the five-team competition.

Jordan finished on the top with a whooping 293 points while Pakistan secured the second spot with 241.5 points.

The Jordanian women team comprised Yasmin Abu Jaber, Huda Al-Saket, May Abu Gharbieh, Azza Qashu, Hana Kredeieh and Randa Saket.

The Indian team which had dominated the competition since its inception was placed third 235 with points.

By virtue of reaching the final, Jordan and Pakistan women teams have qualified for the 17th Cup and Pakistan and India Senior teams for the fifth Senior Bowl to be held in Sao Paulo from Aug 26 to Sept 12.

Pakistan senior team having Tariq Rasheed Khan-Parvez Mirza, Rashid-ul-Ghazi, Khalid Javed-Saeed Akhtar and Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi in the line-up, ended their league outing in style by hammering Palestine 24-6 to end with 171 points.

Though India lost their ninth round match to Pakistan by two International Match Points, they remained unbeaten and topped the double round-robin league with 207 points.

In their fold were none-playing captain Samat Anand, R.A. Agarwal, S.K. Iyengar, S.K. Lal, V.M. Poddar Dipak, Ashok Kumar Ruia and Sridharan.

Like Pakistan women and senior teams, Pakistan Open team of Masood Mazhar, Shouq Hussain, Nawab Yousuf Talpur-Hasan Jawad, Khaled Mohiuddin with Mubashir Puri continued their fine run in the event.

After beating Kuwait 17-13 in the 14th round, they ended evening session with an impressive 18-12 victory over Sri Lanka.

Reigning BFAME Open Champion India are peaking in great fashion as they blitzed Sri Lanka 25-2 and ended Tuesday’s evening session by outplaying Syria in all department of the game, registering 23-7 victory in the 15th round.

The Indians are leading the Open series with 284.5 points. Pakistan are paced second with 269.5 points followed by Syria (241).—Agencies