Pakistan beat India to enter World Junior Squash quarterfinals
Pakistan proved that seedings can be mere numbers as they registered a comprehensive 2-1 win over India for a place in the quarterfinal of the WSF-World junior men's team championship on Thursday. And now after the big upset, Pakistan will play England in the last eight of the tournament.
Seeded 11 as compared to India's 5, and giving an impression of being a slightly weak side after its loss to the Czech Republic in the Group league, Pakistan players proved every doubter wrong by showing the resilience and the ability to make the most of the opportunities to leave the big gathering stunned in the end. The Indians paid the price for their inability to build on an advantage. Both Rahul Baitha against Haris Qasim and Yash Fadte against Abbas Zeb had a one-game lead to start with. From there, however, the slip began inexplicably for a slide thereafter.
Unforced errors compounded India's worry even as the Pakistani lads gained in inspiration and confidence. If nippy Haris showed fight then Abbas was a picture of a cool customer. Though points still went close both Rahul and Yash were undone when the games and the contest reached the final stretch. Yash, in fact, was desperate that he once pushed Abbas for which he received a warning and when he repeated that at the fag end of the fourth game, he was docked a point and that pushed him to the brink of defeat.
With the tie won, the third singles did not matter. Yet the two sides decided to go ahead and as it happened Veer Chotrani defeated Muhammad Uzair to bring some consolation for India. “The pressure was on India. The win has given the boys confidence now for its next match against England,” said the Pakistan Coach Muhammad Yasin.
Earlier, the redoubtable force that the top seed Egypt is, it was only expected that Argentina, the 15th seed would be brushed aside in quick time. So it was, with Egypt's Mostafa El Serty and Marwan Tarek taking just 43 minutes to attain the winning 2-0 margin, before Omar Torkey completed the rout.
In terms of an upset, Hong Kong seeded 9 too earned the bill by beating the seventh-seeded Colombia 2-1. The match gained focus because the deciding tie saw the two contestants, Ho Ka Kei and Luis Alejandro Mancilla needing the fifth game to break the deadlock and that too on extra points.
The results: pre-quarterfinals
Pakistan beat India 2-1 (Haris Qasim bt Rahul Baitha 8-11, 16-14, 11-6, 11-7; Abbas Zeb bt Yash Fadte 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-2; Muhammad Uzair lost to Veer Chotrani 10-12, 5-11) ; Hong Kong bt Colombia 2-1 (To Wai Lok bt Andres Villamizar 11-7, 11-8, 11-7; Chung Yat Long lost to Matias Knudsen 3-11, 6-11, 3-11; Ho Ka Hei bt Lui Alejandro Mancilla 11-8, 11-5,8-11,9-11, 12-10); Malaysia bt Ireland 2-0 (Duncan YungYii Lee bt Scott Gillanders 5-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9; Darren Rahul Pragasam bt Conar Moran 7-11, 13-11, 11-7, 11-8); Australia lost to Canada 0-3 (Maaz Jamal Khatri lost to Ryan Picken 11-9, 10-12, 15-13,5-11, 5-11; Nicholas Calvert lost to James Flynn 6-11, 11-3, 3-11, 5-11; Jacob Ford lost to George Crowne11-6, 4-11, 8-11); Egypt bt Argentina 3-0 (Mostafa El Serty bt Lisandro Ortiz 11-7, 11-2, 11-5; Marwan Tarek bt Jeremias Azana 11-5, 11-5, 11-3; Omar E. Torkey bt Dylan Tymkiw 11-3, 11-1); Germany lost to England 0-2 (Maximillian Baum lost to Jared Carter 5-11, 3-11, 4-11; Abdel-Rehman Ghait lost to Nicholas Wall 10-12, 6-11, 4-11); Czech Republic bt Switzerland 2-0 (Marek Panacek bt Miguel Mathis 11-5, 11-2, 11-5; Viktor Byrtus bt Yannick Wilhemi 11-7, 11-8, 11-8); USA bt New Zealand 2-0 (Thomas Rosini bt Temw Chileshe 6-11, 11-9, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9; Daelum Mawji bt Matthew Lucente 9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 12-10).