KARACHI, Oct 19: Pakistan’s bridge squad had mixed fortunes in the opening week of the 40th Bermuda Bowl World Championship in Veldhoven, the Netherlands on Wednesday.

According to the reports reaching here, after beating Canadian team on the opening day, Pakistan excelled on Tuesday evening in the 9th round when they thrashed a powerful Australian team 23-7 to record their best so far.

For the first time, Azhar Masood’s team played to their potential and outplayed the Aussies. Pakistan players showed intensity, brilliant bidding and tactical play to demolish their strong opponents. Pakistan is now placed at 19th after round ten in the 22-nation event.

However, after beating Australia, Pakistan suffered a shock 13-17 defeat against South Africa. Earlier, in another match Pakistan lost 11-19 to Guadeloupe, one of the Caribbean Islands competing in the event.

With 11 more rounds to go, Pakistan team comprising Azhar- Masood-Javed Ahmed, Rashid-ul-Ghazi-Tehsin Gheewala and Khaled Mohiuddin and Mubazhir Puri have to play at the best to have any chance of making into the knock-out round of the championship.

Pakistan now play Iceland, USA-1 and Chile in their league matches on Thursday. They so far have got 122 Victory Points.

Last championship runners-up Italy (200), host Netherlands (186), Israel (182.34), Iceland (169.5), USA-2 (169), USA-1 (163.5), Poland (162), Japan (160), Sweden (159) and Bulgaria (154.50) VPs are top 10 leading teams.—APP