KARACHI: Pakistan beat Hong Kong 2-1 in the first semi-final and made their way to the men’s squash team event’s final during the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, on Friday.
Pakistan will face India, who beat Malaysia 2-0 today in the second semi-final, tomorrow in the final.
Noor Zaman gave Pakistan the lead with a 3-1 win over Leung Chi Hin Henry. However, Hong Kong bounced back in the second match as Mohammad Asim lost against Lau Tsz Kwan 3-2 in a close contest.
In the decider, Nasir Iqbal clinched a convincing 3-0 win over Tang Ming Hong to get Pakistan into the final.
Asim, who lost his game in a nail-biter, opened up after the Men in Green secured a medal in the event and said that the team will do their best to clinch the gold tomorrow.
“It feels great to be in the final, the match was fantastic. Unfortunately, I couldn’t win my contest because all of my matches were against top players,” he said.
“Honestly, we didn’t expect to play the final because our team is junior compared to our opponents who have top 10 players. We have secured silver now, and we are going to give our all to confirm gold tomorrow.
“This is teamwork, we cannot give credit or put blame on a single person. Every team is against us, one cannot imagine how we are playing here.”
Noor, who gave Pakistan a bright start by winning his game, also talked in a video, just like Asim, stating that they were not expecting to reach the final.
“We weren’t expecting because Nasir and Asim both are very experienced and the latter even lost his match because his matches were against top players. I, too, am playing against great players but I managed to win them. Pray for us tomorrow,” he concluded.
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.
