By Anand Philar, IANS
Chennai : Pakistan underlined their higher seeding with a hard-fought 3-0 win against India in a pool G match of the 21st ICL World Men’s Team Squash championship here Friday.
Having beaten Kenya 3-0 in their opening tie, Pakistan, seeded seventh, qualified for the round of 16 as they take on Bermuda, who had lost 3-0 to 11th seeded India.
India will take on Kenya and a win would take them through to the knock-out phase.
India put up a brave fight. The hosts had their chances in both the singles with Siddhart Suchde and Saurav Ghosal keeping pace with their opponents. But mistakes at crucial stages cost them dear.
Farhan Mehboob gave Pakistan the lead with a close win over Suchde 8-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5, in the first singles, Aamir Atlas Khan, World No.28, outlasted Ghosal 12-10, 11-6, 11-13, 6-11, 11-9, in an absorbing encounter to give his team an unassailable 2-0 lead. Mansoor Zaman then wrapped up the contest with a 11-6, 11-9, 11-3 rout of Ritwik Bhattacharya in the inconsequential third singles.
Suchde began well against Mehboob by taking the first game with a measure of comfort. However, the Pakistani kept his composure to take a touch-and-go second game in the tiebreaker after squandering three game balls.
Thereafter, it was Mehboob all the way as the 53rd ranked Pakistani exhibited an impressive array of shots that had Suchde scrambling all over the court. Mehboob was rarely troubled and in the end, toyed with his opponent.
The eagerly awaited tussle between the two top players, Ghosal and Khan, lived up to expectations as the duo fought tooth and nail. However, Khan held the edge with his sharper strokes and crafty placements as Ghosal succumbed to relentless pressure.
In fact, there was little to choose between Ghosal and Khan. The first three games could have gone either way, for so close and intense was the contest and it was marked by long rallies.
In the first game, Ghosal led 8-3, but Khan climbed to 8-8 and went 10-8 in front. The Indian champion, ranked 48th, came surging back to save two game balls and force a tie-breaker. But Khan managed to stave off the challenge to pick up two points on the trot for a 1-0 lead.
Khan was in full flow in the second game that he wrapped up in quick time for a 2-0 advantage. But then, drama was to follow as Ghosal staged a stirring fightback.
Khan enjoyed early advantage, leading 4-1 and 9-6 in the third game, but Ghosal bounced back to narrow the deficit to 9-8 when he got wrongfooted and twisted his leg. After medication, Ghosal stepped back on to the court and saved a game ball with a brilliant down-the-line backhand shot that left Khan flatfooted to climb to 9-10. Ghosal then tied the scores on a “stroke” awarded to him and eventually pocketed the game at 13-11 to remain in contention.
An inspired Ghosal dominated the fourth game as he cashed in on a sizeable early lead to take the fourth game and level the tie at 2-2.
Despite the setback, Khan barely missed a step in the fifth game as he built up a good lead at the start and then went on to close the match after seeing off Ghosal’s belated challenge.
The third singles was rather one-sided with Zaman proving just too good for Bhattacharya who, towards the end, only put up token resistance.
Indian coach Cyrus Poncha said: “Considering Pakistan’s higher seeding and the fact that all their three players are in top 50, this defeat was by no means shocking. But then, I am pretty happy at the way our players performed today, fighting till the end.”
He admitted that India had their chances, but failed to capitalize on them. “I think, both Saurav and Siddharth could have pulled it off, but they were up against higher ranked players and unforced mistakes cost us in the end. Nevertheless, we are confident of doing well against Kenya in our final league match and then qualify for the pre-quarter-finals,” he said.
Fahim Gul, the Pakistan coach, was pleased with his team’s win.
“We came into this match in high spirits and I am happy that our boys played so well. It was not an easy match and Aamir (Atlas Khan), in particular, put pressure on himself in the crucial second tie. But then, these boys represent the future of Pakistan squash,” he said.
The results:
Group G – Pakistan beat India 3-0 (Farhan Mehboob bt Siddharth Suchde 8-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5; Aamir Atlas Khan bt Saurav Ghosal 12-10, 11-6, 11-13, 6-11, 11-9; Mansoor Zaman bt Ritwik Bhattacharya 11-6, 11-9, 11-3).