Bangladesh reach BFAME semifinal

Bangladesh reached the semifinal of the 22nd BFAME Championships, the qualifying tournament for the Bermuda Bowl, otherwise known as the World Cup of Bridge on Wednesday at Lahore.

Bangladesh, who beat both India and Pakistan on the previous day, kept their tempo early in the day to beat UAE by a convincing 53-26 IMPS to earn 16.25 VPs and consolidate their position to third.

The men in red and green however, lost the final round against Jordan by 56-40 but somehow kept the third position to confirm the semifinal berth.

In this round Shah Zia ul Haque and Moshiur Rahman pair made a horrible blunder of bidding 7NT to get five down doubled that cost a whopping 21-point swing.

On the other table Bishwa Saha and Rashedul Hasan picked up wrongly aligned card and despite earning a slam against a game their 10 points IMPS were revoked as the board was scratched by the director.

Bangladesh had a sigh of relief finishing third despite those two incidents but they found themselves highest ranked India as the latter lost against Pakistan by the slightest of the margins to be descended to second position.

Pakistan, the group leader chose UAE as their opponents in the semifinal leaving Bangladesh and India locking their horns for a place in the Barmuda Bowl.

The winners of semifinals will qualify for the prestigious tournament.