BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan’s poor run in badminton, swimming and boxing continued on Saturday as well in connection with the Commonwealth Games being in operation here at different venues.
After being heavily defeated by India 5-0 in their opener on Friday, Pakistan badminton team showed some resolve against Australia in the mixed team event Group A second fixture but were eventually beaten 3-2 with just a single game against Sri Lanka in hand which was scheduled to be held at 11pm PST Saturday night.
In the mixed doubles, the pair of Jack Yu and Kaitlyn EA defeated Murad Ali and Ghazala Siddique 2-0 with the scores of 21-17, 21-17.
Pakistan made a strong comeback when Hafiz Irfan Saeed defeated Jacob Schueler in the men’s singles fixture 21-18, 21-16 to level the score 1-1. Olympian Mahoor Shahzad provided Pakistan with the lead when she overcame Tiffany Ho in the women’s singles meet 21-18, 21-19.
Australia, however, made a stunning fightback when in the men’s doubles fixture their shuttlers Tran Hoang Pham and Jack Yu defeated Murad and Irfan 21-11, 21-19 to level the scores 2-2. In the women’s doubles game Australian pair of Kaitlyn EA and Angela Yu defeated Mahoor and Ghazala 21-11, 21-6 to seal a 3-2 victory.
The position is that India have won both their matches while Australia and Sri Lanka have one win each. India were scheduled to face Australia at 11pm PST Saturday night and the results of these two games will determine the fate of the second quarter-finalists from the group.
In swimming here at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre Pakistan’s Olympian swimmer Bisma Khan finished at the 38th spot among 68 swimmers in the women's 50m freestyle competitions by clocking 27.82 seconds. She fell short of her personal best timing of 27.78.
Here at the NEC boxing arena Pakistani boxer Nazeerullah Khan was beaten by England’s Lewis Williams 5-0 in the heavyweight preliminaries with the scores being 3—27, 30-25, 30-26, 30-26, 30-27.
Suleman Baloch was eliminated on Friday. In the featherweight category Ilyas Hussain was scheduled to face Lesotho’s Moroke Mokhotho Saturday night.