With national gold on the line, the tension had given way to aggression, physical altercations to verbal spats and obscene gestures. The Sindh women’s netball team, however, rose beyond it to secure glory at the end of it all with a domineering 20-12 victory over Wapda in a fiesty final at the National Games on Sunday.
It was a statement triumph; the provincial side overcoming their departmental opponents who have access to training all year round.
“And yet, we beat them to win gold which makes this even better,” Sindh skipper Quratulain told Dawn.
Teammates Kareema and Huma echoed Quratulain’s words.
“We’ll definitely go a long way if we have that opportunity of year-round training camps and competition,” Huma told Dawn, with Kareema nodding in agreement alongside her.
For Sindh coach Humaira Huma, who took the players under tutelage just this year, her side’s victory was a sign that more needed to be done.
“We need to give these girls a court of their own so they can train and perform even better than what you saw today, which was a product of just a month’s worth of practice,“ said Humaira, who was a member of the first Pakistan national team that competed internationally.
Sindh seized a narrow 7-6 lead in the first quarter against Wapda and had the modest but noisy crowd in raptures when they extended their lead to 13-9 at half-time.
With Wapda chasing the game in the stifling heat typical of Karachi’s winter afternoons, the animosity reached fever pitch with a collision between two players in the third quarter. One Wapda player charged at her opponent and shoved her while screaming in her face. The ensuing fight, reminiscent of a schoolyard scuffle, was quickly broken.
Then, in the final quarter, Wapda’s goal keep made an expletive hand gesture, prompting a strong reaction from the crowd even though the referee was unmoved.
But by then, Sindh were almost over the line with the full-time buzzer sparking wild celebrations from the Sindh players.
There were no handshakes between the teams and the unsportsmanlike conduct multiplied by the time the medal ceremony took place an hour later with a sullen Wapda team cheering for themselves as Sindh were being handed the champions trophy.
Both Wapda and third-place winners Army drowned out Sindh’s celebratory slogans with their own cheers of “losers, losers!”
The men’s final between Army and Navy was devoid of any theatrics; players accepting their technical faults and kept arguments with referees to a minimum.
Army had the slightest of leads over Navy with a 16-15 score at half time but Navy turned the tables in the third quarter to go up 24-22.
Army, however, shifted gears in the final quarter and brilliant play during the power play secured them the gold medal in the last two minutes of the match with a 27-26 triumph.
Netball was one of the few events that began before the opening ceremony on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the men’s bronze-medal match took place between Wapda and Police. A Michael Jordan-esque leap saw the Wapda Goal Shoot cleanly dunk the ball in the net during a convincing 30-19 win.
