India lived up to its reputation by sailing into the semifinals in the men's Open category of the 17th Bridge Federation of Asia and Middle East Championships here today.
Pakistan secured a place in the final in the women's section after finishing top with 289 Victory Points (VPs).
Along with India, who finished on top after league engagements, Bangladesh, Bahrain and UAE also moved into the last four stage in men's Open category after finishing second, third and fourth in the seven-team round robin league with 251, 223 and 201 VPs respectively. They were followed by Kuwait (185) and Sri Lanka (183) while last year's champions Pakistan finished at the bottom with 155 VPs.
In the semifinals, India, comprising Kiran Nadar, Sunit Choksi, Satyanarayana Bachiraju, Balakrishnan Prabhakar and Rajeshwar Tewari, take on UAE while Bangladesh play Bahrain. The semifinals will have four sessions of 16 boards each.
In the women's section, Pakistan, comprising Zeenat Azwer, Rubina Agha, Qudsia Dossa, Roshan Ara Bokhari, Saeed Hai Rubin and Fatima Raza, produced another fine display to defeat India by 22-8 and Sri Lanka by 24-6 VPs. Inspite of two more rounds to go they are now in an unassailable position and lead the field with 190.5 VPs.
Indian women, with 169.5 VPs, are placed second and have a fairly good chance to reach the final. Palestine and Sri Lanka are lying at third and last position with 139 and 100 VPs respectively.
Indian Seniors also did well today to further consolidate their position for a slot in the semifinals. In the two rounds they played today, Indian Senior team, represented by Ashok Goel, Kamal, Kamal Krishna Mukherjee, Alok Kumar Sadhu, Sunil Machhar and R Sridharan first outplayed Bangladesh 23-7 and then beat Pakistan by 17-13 VPs.
India now lead the field in this group with 179 VPs while Bangladesh (152), Sri Lanka (143.5) and Pakistan are lying at the second, third and bottom position respectively.
With two rounds to go, India looked set to enter final in Senior category while any of Bangladesh or Sri Lanka can make it to the title clash to be held on Tuesday.
