|
|
11th South Asian
Games
30 Jan - 06 Feb, Bangladesh |
|
 |
06-Feb, Team Final:
Double for Pakistan,
bronze for hosts
It was an exciting day for the hosts both in terms of
winning a bronze as well as witnessing world class squash
between Pakistan and India in the finals.
The first tie was between Nepal and Bangladesh for the
bronze medal. The partisan crowd were treated to a display
of aggressive passionate squash by the Bangladesh players as
they routed their opposition to secure the bronze along with
Sri Lanka who had already got the medal by virtue of
finishing third in the pool matches.
In the finals between India and Pakistan, the senior and
more experienced Pakistanis doused the fire of the Indian
youngsters with straight game victories to secure the gold.
The order of play for the day was 3-1-2 and dead rubbers
were not played.
All in all it was a well organised games with the hosts
going out of their way to ensure that all participants were
well looked after.
Results:
Bangladesh vs Nepal (2-0)
Rajan Kumar bt Suresh Kumar 6,4,6 (20mins)
Shopon Parvez bt Hira Thapa 1,5,4 (22mins)
Pakistan vs India (2-0)
Mansoor Zaman bt Ravi Dixit 1,2,3 (21mins)
Aamir Atlas bt Gaurav Nandrajog 9,3,8 (33mins)
|
 |
05 Feb, Team Semi-Finals:
The penultimate day and another easy day for the top 2
seeds. Pakistan as expected beat Sri Lanka 3-0 and India
beat Nepal 3-0. Neither of the teams were tested. The order
of play was 1-3-2
Results as follows:
India beat Nepal
1. Gaurav Nandrajog bt Sudeep Singh 5,3,0 (10 mins)
3. Vikas Jangra bt Suresh Kumar 2,4,0 (11 mins)
2. Sandeep Jangra bt Tak Kumar 2,3,3 (10 mins)
Pakistan beat Sri Lanka
1. Farhan Mehboob bt Naveen Samarasinghe 5,8,6 (20 mins)
3. Farhan Zaman bt Eranga Alwis 3,5,13 (19mins)
2. Mansoor Zaman bt Binura Jayasuriya 10,1,7 (19 mins)
The regular and ardent supporters are talking about the
possibility of a bronze medal if they beat Nepal tomorrow
and the Pakistan, India gold medal match which will follow
also promises to be exciting.
|
|
01 Feb, Individual Final:
Aamir Atlas (Pak) bt Farhan
Mehboob (Pak)
12/10, 11/?, 11/?
Aamir retains South Asia title
The match started with both players keeping it safe with a
basic game. As the game wore on Aamir started moving his
opponent a lot more to the front and Farhan started making
unforced errors. Aamir scraped thru 12-10 in 18 mins.
The second and third was a display of Farhan’s aggression
and Aamir’s amazing retrieving skills. Although Aamir was
2-6 down in the third, he was unfazed and in quick time made
it 8-6 with some delightful drop shots. In 44 minutes it was
all over.
Aamir retained his title which he won in the previous SAG in
Sri Lanka in 2008. He also extended his margin of victory
over his cousin Farhan to 5 wins and 2 losses.
Gaurav Nandrajog and Sandeep Jangra both of India finished
with the bronze.
The team event starts tomorrow. It will be a round robin of
5 teams- Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Men’s Team Event – Round Robin
Date Day Session Start Court 1 Court 2
Feb. 2 Tuesday 4pm IND V BD SRI V NEP
Feb. 3 Wednesday 4pm IND V SRI PAK V BD
Feb. 4 Thursday 4pm PAK V NEP SRI V BD
Feb. 5 Friday 4pm PAK V SRI IND V NEP
Feb. 6 Saturday 4pm PAK V INDI BD V NEP
|
Khan earns Gold...
Will Mather
on the final
The individual gold medal final was highly anticipated as
Farhan Mehboob took on Aamir Atlas Khan at the 11th South
Asian Games in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Lets just call Khan 'The Finisher' as he was looking for
every opportunity to put the ball away and was succeeding.
Attacking even on the serve, Khan continued his high risk
variety of shots and backed them with great defense if they
were off the mark. Attempting his crosscourt nicks from both
sides of the court, in addition to backcourt kills and
precise drops, Khan was playing much tighter than his game
against Sandeep Jangra in the previous round.
Mehboob never appeared to be under pressure from such shots,
but he didn't have an answer. His graceful court movement
and continual digs kept him in the rallies and he countered
on several occasions, but costly errors kept him a point
behind. A couple of calls that could have gone the other way
sealed a highly competitive first game.
The second game saw Khan turn up the pace and now Mehboob
was appearing a step behind. Mehboob was never in control of
the game and was simply defending against the onslaught of
attempts at nicks and kills with lobs, pushing Kahn to the
back of the court. Kahn would return the same, cross-court
lobbing, giving himself the needed time to step up and
pursue the volley drop or cross court nick again, often with
great success. A more convincing win in the second for Kahn.
The Finisher has a complete game and is very aggressive -
the kind of squash everyone loves to watch. So we were all
anxious to see how Mehboob would respond, but he continued
with more of the same, pushing the game to the back of the
court and slowing the pace down. Kahn wouldn't have any of
it and continued his assault on the front corners. When he
didn't have the angle, he would look to create it; it was
just a matter of time before his readily prepared racket
would smash the ball into a nick.
Mehboob was becoming more unravelled and just couldn't deny
the accuracy of Kahn on this night. Match to Khan.
|
Day THREE,
Semi-Finals:
Major Maniam reports
In the first match Gaurav Nandrajog the no. 1 player from
India came up against Farhan Mehboob the second seed from
Pakistan.
Both players started of aggressively belting the ball at a
furious pace. Gaurav however did not have the finishing
shots that Farhan had, thus losing out in a tame 3 games.
In contrast the second match was one of beautiful touches
and finesse in the front half of the court. Both players
were brilliant and time and again wrong footed each other
with deceptive shots much to the delight of the spectators.
In the end the more consistent Aamir had the better of
Sandeep who become a tad error prone as the game wore on.
However the crowd dispersed singing the praises of Sandeep
(who has joined the PSA) and his gallant fight against the
world no.17
Results:
Aamir Atlas bt Sandeep Jangra 5-11,11-7,11-7,11-8
Farhan Mehboob bt Gaurav Nandrajog 11-5, 11-8, 11-4
|
| Day TWO
Results (4) Sandeep
Jangra - IND bt (5) Navin Samarasinghe - SRI [11-6, 11-9,
7-11, 11-2] (34)
Jangra and Samarasinghe played tentatively, patiently
playing to the front and attacking at the most opportune
moment. This was largely because of the fast courts, brand
new and having a lively bounce.
Samarasinghe seemed almost uncomfortable with the pace of
the match, taking the ball to length and generally keeping
the much taller Jangra behind him but failing to finish the
point. Jangra maintained a very controlled game, especially
at the tee, which may have contributed to the footwork woes
of Samarasinghe.
Overall, the quality of squash - while conservative - was
consistent, tight and altogether entertaining.
(3) Gaurav Nandrajog - IND bt (6) Gihan Swaris - SRI
[11-7, 11-5, 11-5] (24)
The score line doesn't entirely describe the several
intensely competed rallies Nandrajog and Swaris had.
The match was about one-upping the opponent, trading
virtually identical shots back-to-back as if in a copycat
drill, with the eventual winner being the one who played the
shot better. It made for a very entertaining match and
sticks out as my favorite for the day. Both players showed
great retrieval, stretching great lengths to keep the rally
going and impressing the crowd.
Nandrajog's movement - with his significant height advantage
- only exaggerated the amount of space he could cover in one
great lunge. Swaris regularly prepared himself for the
likely retrievals and aside from a few errors, kept the
pressure on to the finish.
Congrats to both players for a match well played - the crowd
really enjoyed it!
(2) Farhan Mehboob - PAK bt (8) Shopon Pervez - BAN
[11-4, 11-2, 11-5] (17)
The match started with a bang as the players traded winning
shots. There were 8 points scored (4-4) just two minutes
into the first game. Nick. Cross court nick. Back court
nick. But Mehboob proved to be the much better player with a
variety of shots and smooth court movement.
I've never seen him play before but found myself drawn to
his footwork; you know good footwork when you see it
(because you don't hear it!). Pervez became discouraged at
the task, unwilling to push himself further to open up the
court. In spite of my repeated efforts to see him attack the
backhand of Mehboob, he played into the strengths of the
shot making, left-handed Pakistani who was all to eager to
put the ball away from his forehand side.
Mehboob was just too much, but I would have enjoyed watching
a bit more!
(1) Aamir Atlas Khan - PAK bt (10) Masud Rana [11-0,
11-0, 11-1] (15)
One for the little guy...
Rana would be the smallest player even on the Junior circuit
and with Khan there to make him work for every rally, he
quickly found himself down and couldn't avoid the bagel. Or
two.
Rana, having already played a 5 game match, just didn't have
the fitness to continue on with the exceptional Khan. In the
end, I'm happy he was able to play someone of Khan's caliber,
I just wish it had been a better performance as Rana's
training took a major hit after he was attacked and robbed,
suffering multiple stab wounds.
He is fortunate to have survived and has been able to make a
comeback to rejoin the team in training, but he would find
no such mercy at the racket of Khan. Match to Khan with
great ease.
|
Day One Results
(10) Masud Rana - BAN bt (7)Hira Bahadur Thapa - NEP
[11-3, 11-7, 4-11, 10-12, 11-7] (50)
Missed opportunities for both...
Rana held on to dispatch Thapa after jumping out to a quick
2 game lead in the first round of the 11th South Asian Games
here in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Rana's indecisiveness at the
front led many missed opportunities to finish off points,
but in the end he found an answer for the patient,
deliberate game of Thapa.
Rana moves on to face Aamir Atlas Khan, no easy task as Khan
sits in the top 20 in the world and just celebrated his
greatest victory of then-No. 1 Gregory Gaultier of France in
the Qatar Classic.
(8) Shopon Pervez - BAN bt (9) Tak Kumar Tilija - NEP
[11-3, 11-5, 12-10] (30)
Pervez moves on after taking straight games from Tilija.
Pervez, the local #1 and eighth seed of the tournament, will
have his hands full with Farhan Mehboob of Pakistan. Team
Bangladesh is hoping to make a good showing of it and play
smart squash against a very talented Pakistan team.
|
Pakistanis favourites in Bangladesh
Will Mather reports
The small squash community in Bangladesh is in for a big
treat as traditional power Pakistan and other greats like
India and Sri Lanka visit for the South Asian Games at the
renowned Dhaka Club.
The seeding suggests an all Pakistan final with Aamir
Atlas Khan and Farhan Mehboob taking the top two
seeds. Other notable seeds include (3) Guarav Nandrajog
and (4) Sandeep Jangra of India and (5) Navin
Samarasinghe of Sri Lanka.
Smaller programs like Nepal and Bangladesh seek to even out
the perceived disparity in experience and talent. Nepal has
made significant strides in developing courts and programs
in the past 5 years and hope to see it bear fruit during the
games. Bangladesh recently brought in yours truly, National
Squash Coach Will Mather, to facilitate squash specific
training and development throughout the country. |
|
