JAKARTA: Malaysia edged Pakistan 2-0 in the men’s squash team semi-finals at the Asian Games here at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Friday.

Malaysia’s Mohamed Nafiizwan Adnan delivered the first point for Malaysia by defeating Aslam Tayyab 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 before former world junior champion Ng Eain Yow secured the place in the final for Malaysia after subduing Pakistan’s Israr Ahmed 7-11, 11-8, 16-14, 11-6 in the second match.

Earlier, Hong Kong booked their place in the final by defeating reigning champions India 2-0 in the other last-four tie.

In baseball, Pakistan beat Hong Kong 12-2 in their last group match. Arsalan Jamshed (4), Obaidullah (3) and Fazal Khan (2) were the main scorers for Pakistan.

Prioir to the Hong Kong match, Pakistan had beaten hosts Indonesia and Thailand before losing to China and Japan.

Meanwhile, Pakistan hockey team manager Hasan Sardar blamed bad umpiring as one of the main reasons for the national team’s 0-1 loss to Japan in the Asian Games semi-final.

Hasan, a legendary Olympian, said the on-field umpire and third umpire Javed Shiekh and V. Raghu Prasad were Indians and were clearly biased against Pakistan in their decisions.

“All the referrals went against us and the video umpire supported the Japanese,” he said. “We were awarded a penalty stroke in the 44th minute but Japanese appealed against that decision and, to our amazement, the video umpire upheld the Japanese protest,” Hasan regretted.

“We were clearly deprived of a goal. We had protested against the Indian officials before and after the match but they ignored our protests,” he lamented.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2018