Indian men squash players bite dust against Pakistan

India today suffered a major disappointment as the country's top squash players Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu lost to arch-rivals Pakistani player in the individual men's semifinals in the 12th South Asian Games here.
Top seed Ghosal was out of sorts in his 4-11, 5-11, 12-10, 5-11 loss to Farhan Zaman while Sandhu did a shade better before conceding the match in the fourth game in favour of his rival second seed Nasir Iqbal, citing a right hamstring injury. Sandhu was trailing at 7-11 14-12 7-11 6-6 when he called injury time out in an ill-tempered match at the R G Baruah Sports Complex.

It is not yet known whether Sandhu would be fit to play against Ghosal for the bronze-medal match tomorrow after his injury today in the semifinal match which had seen the Indian arguing with the referee who once warned him to stop doing that.
In the women's event, however, ace player and top seed Joshna Chinappa easily defeated her Pakistani rival Sadia Gul 11-9 11-7 11-5 in the semifinals to set up the summit clash tomorrow against another player of the western neighbours.
As expected, the Indians and Pakistanis met at the semifinals and both were tense affairs. Pakistan had won both the gold and silver in men's individual event in the last edition of the Games in 2010 but the Indians had come here high on confidence after an upswing recently.

Ghosal had won a silver in the 2014 Asian Games and he is currently the highest ranked Asian in the world at number 20 and the home side is keen to end Pakistan's domination in SAG.

But, nothing went right for the men's players as Sandhu and Ghosal were simply the second best today as they also conceded later.
Sandhu was the first to take the court and he straightaway took a 5-1 lead in the first game but from then onwards, the Pakistani number one player fought back superbly to win it 11-7.
Egged on by the home crowd at the newly built facility, Sandhu fought back by winning the second game 14-12 after a close tussle but failed to maintain the momentum by losing the third 7-11.

The fourth game saw both rivals neck and neck and there were loud protests towards the referee for obstructions and during one long rally Sandhu's backside of the thigh was seen to have been hit by his Pakistani opponent.
But, after a while, Sandhu came up to tell his Pakistani rival that he will not take field further as he was having a right hamstring problem.
For Ghosal, it was a forgettable show by his standards as he was expected to at least reach the finals.
But, he was not in his element as he quickly conceded a 0-2 lead to Zaman, 39 places below him in world rankings, by losing the first two games 4-11 5-11.

Ghosal came back in the third set with a tight and nerve-racking 12-10 win. In fact, it was the only game in which the Indian gave a fight to his Pakistani rival. Both players were neck and neck, taking one point lead in turn. They were 7-7 9-9 and then 10-10 before Ghosal won it 12-10.
But the fourth game show Ghosal again making the mistakes and the Pakistani coming up with some fine efforts as the visiting player took it 11-5 and the match 3-1.
A distraught looking Ghosal later said that losing at home at this stage was disappointing though he would take it in his stride.

"Losing is always disappointing but losing at home at this stage is really said. It is even sadder thinking that I held the country's flag at the opening ceremony. I can't say what went wrong today and I don't want to give any excuses. I think I will have to take this in my stride," Ghosal said disappointment writ large on his face.
"I did not play at the level I am capable of but I don't want to take away from my Pakistani opponent. He was better today," he added.
Asked if there was a feeling of the India-Pakistan rivalry on the court, he said, "When India and Pakistan play against each other in any sport, some might be having that feeling. But I always tried to control myself and not think about it and concentrate on my game."

"Pakistan had been a top squash country some years back but no longer now. But we did not come here with the thought that we want to assert ourselves that we are on the rise and would want to dominate them (Pakistan).