JAKARTA: Of the three victories for Pakistan at the Asian Games on Tuesday, there was little doubt that the one by the volleyball team was the sweetest. After all this was against arch-rivals India, even if it was a 9-12th place playoff.

On a day when the hockey team produced yet another commanding performance, recording their fifth straight win, and the squash team won its third consecutive match, it was the 3-1 volleyball victory over India that was most celebrated.

In a contest lasting 100 minutes, Pakistan came back from a set down to win 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-23 and will now face China in a 7-10th place playoff.

Aimal Khan was the star for Pakistan with 26 spikes with Murad Jehan also playing a pivotal role with 22 spikes. Both had two successful blocks as well with the latter also earning a point on the serve. Mubashir Raza also had 10 spikes.

Pakistan closed their Pool ‘B’ campaign in hockey with a perfect record after another big win, thrashing Bangladesh 5-0 to set up a semi-final against Japan on Thursday. Atiq Arshad and Mubashar Ali both scored two goals each while Ali Shan added the other goal.

Atiq opened the scoring in the second minute before Mubashar scored his goals, both penalty corner conversions, in the ninth and 25th. Ali made it 4-0 in the 38th with Atiq converting from a penalty corner 12 minutes later to round off the scoring.

In the men’s squash event, Pakistan cruised to a 3-0 win over the Philippines to keep themselves firmly in contention for a semi-final spot from Pool ‘A’.

Israr Ahmad won 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 against Peline David William, Tayyab Aslam was equally untroubled in his 11-4, 11-3, 14-12 win against Garcia Robert Andrew while Amaad Fareed beat Begornia Reymark 11-9, 11-7, 11-5.

While the men’s team is winning, the women’s team has been losing and lost their third straight match 3-0 to Japan.

Pakistan’s baseball team, meanwhile, lost 3-16 to China in their final Group ‘A’ match and will now play in the consolation round while the sepaktakraw team fell 2-0 in the quadrant Group ‘B’ match.

Over on the track, Pakistan’s Uzair Rehman missed out on qualifying for the men’s 200m semi-final by 0.36 seconds after he posted a time of 21.70 seconds in his heat. That saw him finish 18th among 31 competitors with compatriot Mohammad Shahbaz (21.91) ending 22nd.

Pakistan’s struggles continued in Kurash, a form of wrestling indigenous to central Asia, with Shehroze Mohammad Razi (men’s -66kg), Syed Samiullah (men’s -66kg) and Zunair bin Zahir (men’s +90kg) all losing their last-32 bouts.

The woes didn’t subside on the tennis court either where MohammadYahya, Eibad Sarwar Hussain lost both their men’s preliminary round soft tennis matches.

In the women’s singles event, Syeda Eraj Batool suffered similar fate as her male compatriots while Varisha Khan fared even worse as she lost all her three matches of the day.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2018