Aqeel, Abid lead fightback as Pakistan sink Azerbaijan

Islamic Games in Baku

KARACHI: Pakistan men’s handball team finished seventh when they defeated Jordon 33-31 after an absorbing fight of the Islamic Games at the Sarhadchi Arena in Baku on Friday.

Pakistan, who had lost their previous three matches, showed some resolve against a weaker side of Jordon before narrowly managing a win in the end despite being kept under pressure by the rivals after half-time.

At half-time, Pakistan had an 18-14 edge. And in the second session Jordon did a fine job as they scored 17 as compared to Pakistan’s 15 but the Green-shirts prevailed due to better aggregate.

Hazrat Hussain top-scored for Pakistan with ten goals to his credit. He was ably backed by Mohammad Zubair who hit six while Muzammil Hussain and Zakir Hussain landed five goals each. Khaled Abu Hasan (10) and Ahmed Almousa (9) were the leading scorers for Jordon.

Meanwhile Azerbaijan got fifth position when they overcame Morocco 31-25 in another hard contest.

Boxing: It was not a fine start to the journey for the Pakistani boxing squad as young Suleman Baloch fell at the first hurdle when he went 0-5 down against Obada Alkasbeh of Jordon in the light welterweight (64) preliminaries (pre-quarter-finals).

The ultimate break-up from five judges was 30-27, 30-26, 29-28, 30-27 and 29-28 in favour of the Jordanian.

Mohibullah will face Dayanch Annaseyidov of Turkmenistan in his light flyweight preliminaries on Saturday (today). Pakistan has fielded seven boxers in the competitions.

Tennis: It was a decent start to the men’s team event tennis slots for Pakistan as they defeated hosts Azerbaijan 2-1 in Group B opening fixtures to open their account.

As per the details, Pakistan’s highly-experienced and the 2005 Islamic Games men’s singles bronze medallist Aqeel Khan provided the lead to Pakistan when he tamed Rasoul Gojayev 6-1, 6-2.

In the second show, Mohammad Abid of Pakistan went 1-2 down against Filip Nikolic with the score being 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 in favour of the latter.

However, Pakistan made amends in the doubles when the pair of Aqeel and Abid outsmarted Filip and Orkhan 6-3, 6-4 to seal the victory.

Meanwhile it was not a good beginning for Pakistan women tennis players as the country went 0-3 down to Turkey in their pool fixture.

Ushan Sohail lost to Anastasiya Prenko 1-6, 6-7 while Sara Mansoor conceded her fight against Jahan Bayramova 2-6, 2-6.

In doubles, the pair of Mehak Khokhar and Sara Mehboob lost to Jahan and Guljan with the set score of 1-6, 6-7.

Volleyball: Pakistan’s senior volleyball side were off to a disappointing start when they were routed by hosts Azerbaijan 3-0 in their Group A clash at the Crystal Hall of the Olympic Stadium late Thursday night.

The set score was 25-22, 25-18 and 25-21 in favour of Azerbaijan. Highly-talented spiker Murad Jehan scored 14 while Naseer Ahmed secured ten points.

Milosz Hebda emerged as the leading scorer of the game, making 19 points.

Meanwhile in the other Group A show, Turkey crushed Turkmenistan 3-0 with the set score of 25-16, 25-11 and 27-25.

On Friday, in Group B competitions, Algeria defeated Qatar 3-1 while hot favourites Iran bulldozed Saudi Arabia 3-0 with the set score of 25-18, 25-23, 25-18.