ISLAMABAD/LAHORE - Malaysia thrashed Pakistan 2-0 in the semifinals of the 18th Asian Games men’s team event in Jakarta on Friday.

According to Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) Game Development Officer Flight Lieutenant Aamir Iqbal, in the first match, Tayyab Aslam was up against Nafizwan. Nafizwan, who is at the twilight of his career, never gave Tayyab any chance to settle down and simply outclassed the Pakistani top seed to win the encounter in straight games. The Malaysian won the first game 11-8, took the second 11-6 and won the third 11-6 to give Malaysia 1-0 lead.

After Tayyab defeat, it was all left on the shoulders of Israr to keep Pakistan hopes alive in the semifinals. But Israr was simply looking out of sorts and lost the match 1-3 against Ng Eian Yow. Israr took the first game 11-7, but after that, Eian won the second game 11-8, took the third 16-14 and fourth 11-6 to send Pakistan team packing and marched into the finals.

Talking to The Nation, Aamir said: “We were not expecting national team to go down against Malaysia, as both the teams were equally matched and we had trained our team so well. Anyhow, now the boys had won the bronze medal and we will try to find out where the things went wrong and will try to address those areas.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan baseball team recorded their third consecutive victory against Hong Kong after thumping them by 12-2 in the last group match. For Pakistan, Arslan Jamshed scored four runs, Ubaid Ullah three and Fazal Khan two runs. Earlier, Pakistan defeated Indonesia and Thailand but they were routed by Chine and Japan.

In rugby, China proved too hot for Pakistan as they badly thrashed the green shirts by 53-0. Pakistani players had no answers to sharp-skilled Chinese players, who didn’t allow their opponents to score even a single score. However in the second match of the day, Pakistan rugby team managed to outclass Indonesia 21-5.

Pakistan medal hopes Shah Hussain Shah and Qaisor Khan also disappointed the nation as both were thrashed by their respective opponents. Kazakhstan’s Demyanenko Viktor overpowered Shah Hussain Shah by 10S1-0 while Chinese Taipei’s Chaoen Shen beat Qaisor Khan by 1S2-0. In sepak takraw, Vietnam defeated Pakistan by 2-0.

GREEN SHIRTS MUST NOW FOCUS ON THIRD POSITION MATCH: PHF

Disappointed on Pakistan hockey team’s performance in the Asian Games, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior said that green shirts must now focus on bringing a bronze medal home in their third position match against India today (Saturday).

Shahbaz said the team disappointed us for not being qualified for the final but they must now totally focus on beating India and bringing a bronze medal home. “Winning and losing is part of the game but Pakistan team must forget about the past and think about winning the third position match,” he said.

Meanwhile Pakistan hockey team manager Hasan Sardar has blamed bad umpiring a reason for green-shirts 0-1 loss against Japan in the Asian Games semi final. Sardar said the field and third umpire Javed Shiekh and V Raghu Prasad, both were Indians, were biased towards Pakistan. “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 this decision and to our amazement, video umpire upheld the Japanese protest. We were deprived of a goal. We had protested against the Indian officials before and after the match but they ignored our protests," he added.