KARACHI: Pakistan’s young wordsmiths continued to shine at the 12th WESPA Youth Cup being played in Kuala Lumpur.

According to the information received here, there were no less than four players from Pakistan in the top 10 at the end of day two, making Pakistan the top team at the championship.

Tuesday turned out to be a long day as 11 matches were played in order to ensure an early finish on the third and final day.

Pakistan’s Ahmed Abdullah Abbasi continued to play some brilliant scrabble. At the end of day two, Abdullah was second with 15 wins and a spread of 1,605. He is averaging a superb 452 points per match over 18 rounds.

Aabid Ismail of Sri Lanka ended day two on top with 15.5 wins and a spread of 1,423. He is ahead of Abdullah by only 0.5 wins.

Twelve-year-old Hasham Hadi, who remained unbeaten on day one, continued his fine form and climbed to the No. 1 spot before being dislodged by Abdullah. Hasham is currently third with 15 wins and a spread of 938.

Janul D’Silva of Sri Lanka was fourth with 14 wins while Aditya Iyengar of India was fifth with 13 wins.

Eleven-year-old Syed Imaad Ali staged a superb rally with some impressive wins and climbed to the sixth position with 13 wins.

Sohaib Sanaullah made an even bigger recovery and moved to the 10th position through some huge wins after being 87th earlier in the day.

Interestingly, all players in the top 10 are from Asia with Lewis Hawkins from New Zealand at 12th being the top non-Asian.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2017