World Junior Squash Championships: Pakistan gets the better of India

Nonetheless, going by the seedings, it was a big upset. Pakistan will play England in the last eight. Seeded 11 as compared to India’s 5, and giving an impression of being a slightly weak side after its loss to Czech Republic in the Group stage, 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 and Yash Fadte against Haris Qasim and Abbas Zeb respectively had a game’s lead to start with. From there, however, the slip began inexplicably for a slide thereafter. Unforced errors compounded India’s worry. 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 in which 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 the its next match against Englnd,” said the Pakistan Coach Muhammad Yasin. Earlier, Egypt brushed aside Argentina 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 El Torkey completed the rout.

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, 11-5,811,9-11, 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) 

Egypt bt Argentina 3-0 (Mostafa El Serty bt Lisandro Ortiz 11-7, 11-2, 115; Marwan Tarek bt Jeremias Azana 11-5, 11-5, 11-3; Omar E. Torkey bt Dylan Tymkiw 11-3, 11-1) 

Czech Republic bt Switzerland 2-0 (Marek Panacek bt Miguel Mathis 115, 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)