LAHORE, July 26: Top seed Pakistan International Airline (PIA) and Army from pool “A”, Mari Gas and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) from pool “B” are on course for semifinal places in the national squash team championship at the Punjab Squash Complex courts after Saturday matches.
PIA notched up third consecutive win when they whitewashed Balochistan 3-0.
The national carrier’s number one player Mansoor Zaman brushed aside Shahab Hussain in straight games in only 26 minutes. He carved out win with the score 9-3, 9-1, 9-7.
The top team of Pool “B”, Mari Gas won two more matches to almost confirmed their place in the semifinals. On Friday Mari Gas won both their matches.
Mari Gas overwhelmed Navy first and then Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) by identical margins of 3-0.
Against Navy, Farrukh Zaman proved too good against Rehmatullah when he registered a convincing win 9-2,9-3,9-4 in 19 minutes.
Khayal Mohammad outclassed Shakeel in only nine minutes winning 9-0, 9-0, 9-1. Saeed Hassan was also in hurry as he brushed aside Saif-ur-Rehman in only 11 minutes.The score being 9-1,9-0, 9-0.
Against CAA, Khayal Mohammad blasted Basit Ashfaq 9-5, 9-4,9- 4. The match lasted 47 minutes. Shahnawaz survived a scare before doubling the lead.
Playing against Aqib Hanif, Shahnawaz had lost the first game 7-9 but later he improved and won the three games in a row to clinch victory in one hour. Furrukh Zaman toppled Majid Khan 9-8, 9-5, 7-9, 9-3 to complete the win.
Army and PAF also won two matches each.
Army defeated NWFP and Balochistan with the score of 3-0 in each match.
PAF registered wins against Sindh and Navy also with the identical scores of 3-0.
Results:
POOL “A”: PIA beat Balochistan 3-0: Mansoor Zaman bt Shahab Hussain 9-3,9-1,9-7; Shahid Zaman bt Rizwan Ahmad 9-4, 9-4, 5-9, 9-4;Arshad Iqbal Burki bt Salman Nasir 9-3, 9-5, 9-5.
Punjab bt UGC 3-0: Yasir Butt got walk over; Haider Jamal bt Zahid Naseer 9-2, 9-1, 9-1; Farzan Rashid bt Ali Ayub 9-3, 9-1, 9-0.
Army bt NWFP 3-0: Zubair Ali Khan bt Waseem Shad 9-6, 9-8, 9-1; Khalid Atlas bt Wakeel Khan 9-1, 9-1, 7-1 (retd hurt); Asghar Ali Khan bt Bilal Zaman 10-8, 1-9, 9-7, 9-1.
POOL “B’: Mari Gas bt Pak Navy 3-0: Farrukh Zaman bt Rehmatullah 9-2, 9-3, 9-4; Khayal Mohammad bt Shakeel 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; Saeed Hassan bt Saif-ur-Rehman 9-1, 9-0, 9-0.
CAA bt Railways 3-0: Majid Khan bt M Naveed 9-4, 9-0, 9-0; Basit Ashfaq bt Adeel Hanif 9-7, 9-2, 9-1; Aqib Hanif got walkover.
PAF bt Sindh 3-0: Safeerullah bt Azam Khan 9-2, 9-2, 9-5; Farhan Mehboob bt Shahroz Khan 9-4, 9-2, 9-4; Naveed Atlas bt Asif Khan 9-7, 9-3, 9-1.
EVENING SESSION.
PAF bt Navy 3-0: Farhan Mehboob bt Rehmatullah Khan 9-4, 9-4, 9-3; Naveed Atlas bt Shakeel Haider 9-0, 9-1, 9-1; Amir Atlas bt Saif-ur-Rehman 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.
Sindh bt Railways 2-1: Azam Khan (Sindh) bt Naveed (Railways) 9-1, 9-0, 9-3; Salahuddin (Railways) bt Asif Khan (Sindh) 9-10, 6-9, 9-3, 9-3, 9-4. Shehroze Khan (Sind) bt Adeel Hanif (Railways) 9-7, 4-9, 9-7, 9-5.
Army bt Balochistan 3-0: Zubair Ali Khan bt Shahab Hussain 9-0, 9-3, 9-2; Khalid Atlas bt Rizwan Ahmed 9-0, 9-3, 10-8; Asghar Ali bt Salman Nasir 9-6, 9-7, 9-0.
Mari Gas beat CAA 3-0: Khayal Muhammad bt Basit Ashfaq 9-5, 9-4, 9-4; Shahnawaz bt Aqib Hanif 7-9, 9-6, 9-3, 9-0; Furrukh Zaman bt Majid Khan 9-8, 9-5, 7-9, 9-3.