HANGZHOU: Pakistan missed out on a first medal at the Asian Games on Monday when their women’s cricket team lost to Bangladesh in a low-scoring third-place match.

Elsewhere, Pakistan suffered losses in singles mat­ches but won their doubles ties in tennis while shooter Ghulam Mustafa Bashir finished last in his final.

At the Zhejiang Univ­ersity of Technology Cricket Field, Bangladesh took the bronze after restricting Pakistan to 64-9 and crawling to their target of 65 in 18.2 overs.

It meant Pakistan, who won the gold on both previous occasions that cricket was played in the Asian Games, return home empty-handed.

Aliya Riaz was the Pakis­tan’s top-scorer with 17 runs while the skipper Nida Dar got 14 as Bangladesh’s

Shorna Akter (3-16) ripped through the lower middle-order. Shorna’s 14 not out then got Bangladesh home despite Nashra Sandhu’s 3-10.

Over at the HOC Tennis Centre, Pakistan’s Ushna Sohail and Sarah Ibrahim suffered double-bagel losses to China’s Lin Zhu and Eala Alex of the Philippines respectively in their women’s second-round matches. The duo, however, won their first-round doubles tie 6-1, 6-1 against Mongolia’s Yesugen Ganbaatar and Sonom-yanzum Enkhjargal.

Aqeel Khan and Aisam-ul-Haq advanced into the men’s doubles second round with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Timor-Leste’s Antonio Mendes and Agapito Guterres Ferreira.

In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol, Mustafa became the first out of six shooters to be eliminated in the second round, exiting with a total of 13 hits.

At the LA Sports Centre, Pakistan’s Haroon Khan exited the men’s taekwondo -58kg competition in the last-16 stage after falling 2-1 to Kyrgyz Aidin Altybaev. Haroon won the opening round 10-5 but lost the last two 10-9 and 15-12.

Pakistan also suffered three defeats in the wushu sanda quarter-finals at the XSG Sports Centre.

Abdul Rehman was knoc­ked out by Kazak­hstan’s Abdusamat Ashirov in the men’s 65kg contest, Abdul Khaliq was beaten on points by China’s Xuetao Wang in the men’s 60kg match while Maria Kara­mat also lost on points to Thuy Thu Thi Nguyen of Vietnam in their women’s 60kg clash.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2023