JAKARTA: On the day Pakistan’s kabaddi team received its bronze medals, the hockey team continued its quest for gold with a 16-0 romp against Kazakhstan at the Asian Games here in the Indonesian capital on Friday.

The thrashing of Kazakhstan was Pakistan’s third straight win in Pool ‘B’ and strengthened their position for a place in the semi-finals ahead of their toughest fixture against Malaysia on Sunday — a clash that would potentially decide which team ends top of the section.

Pakistan lead the pool ahead of Malaysia on goal difference. They play Bangladesh, who trail the leaders by three points, in their final pool game on Tuesday.

Pakistan were rampant against Kazakhstan at the at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Sports Complex, pumping six goals by half-time and were even more imperious in the second half where they tore into the minnows.

Nine goals came through open play, five via penalty corners and two through penalty strokes.

Tauseeq Arshad scored four times, Abu Bakr Mahmood struck a hat-trick while there were braces for Ali Shan, Rizwan Senior and Umar Bhutta. Mohammad Dilber, Atiq Arshad and Mubashar Ali added a goal apiece.

After another convincing show, the hockey team — yet to concede

a goal at the Games so far — would be hoping to at least get to the podium, where the kabaddi team received their bronze medal on Friday for Pakistan’s first medal at the event.

The medal was secured after Pakistan lost the semi-final 24-27 to South Korea on Thursday. India also took bronze in kabaddi after they were stunned by Iran in the other semi-final.

India got the better of Pakistan in a handball thriller, the 28-27 triumph courtesy a last-minute goal from Naveen Punja seeing them leapfrog their arch-rivals in the 9-13 place classification group.

Muzamal Hussain was the star for Pakistan, who fought back after trailing 12-14 at half-time, with seven goals with Mohammad Pervaiz and Hazrat Hussain scoring five apiece.

Mohammad Atif netted four while there were hat-tricks for Mohammad Zubair and Asim Saeed.

Pakistan lost in another team event, this time in archery, where Idrees Majeed and Nabeela Kousar lost the mixed recurve last-16 match against North Korea.

There was little to celebrate elsewhere with Pakistan golfers Ahmed Baig and Taimoor Khan both failing to shine at the Pondok Indah Golf and Country Club. Both shot a 76 in the second round with Ahmed tied inv 49th place with a total of 154 and Taimoor eight places above him with 151.

Over in the pool, Pakistan couldn’t advance to final in any of the four heats it featured in. Bisma Khan finished seventh in her women’s 50m free heat with a time of 28.08 while Hamza Malik was last in his men’s 50m breaststroke heat after clocking 33.20.

Mishael Ayesha Ayub was fifth out of six after posting 2:38.70 in the women’s 200m medley heat and Pakistan were last in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

At the JSC Shooting Range, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Mohammad Khalil Akhtar finished ninth (290 points) and 16th (283) respectively in the first stage of men’s 25m rapid fire pistol. Kim Junhong of South Korea topped the standings with 296.

Pakistan suffered lop-sided defeats in their three quarter-finals in pencak silat, a full-body fighting sport which includes grappling and throwing, in addition to the use of weaponry.

Umer Farooq lost 0-5 to Kyrgyzs­tan’s Akimkanov Zholdoshbek in the 65-70kg event, Adnan lost by a similar score to Malaysian Mohammad Faizul Nasir in 50-55kg and similar fate befell Rana Ali Raza in the 70-75kg event against Kyrgyzstan’s Daniiar Tokurov.

In badminton, Pakistan’s Azeem Sarwar lost his men’s singles last-32 match to Zee Jia Lee of Malaysia 13-21, 21-10 while Ghazala Siddique and Saima Waqas were thrashed in the women’s doubles last-16 match 3-21, 3-21 by Japan.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2018