November 7, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba’an 20, 1422

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KARACHI, Nov 6: Shoaib A. Khan caused the first upset in the Second Red & White Pool tournament, when he beat the No.5 seed Mesam Zaidi 5-4 at the Indus Snooker Club in Bhadaurabad, Tuesday.

Mesam, the runner-up of the Sindh Cup on three occasions, was trailing 0-2, when Shoaib potting every numbered ball in sight moved smoothly ahead.

But fighting back Mesam levelled the scores 2-2 and even went ahead 3-2, only to see Shoaib level the scores at 3-3. Once again Mesam went ahead 5-4, but this was to be his last hurrah.

Shoaib getting his act together was abreast once again at 4-4 and in the final frame fought in pindrop silence, Shoaib just managed to scrape through a 5-4 winner.

In another match that went the full distance, Mohammad Hussain (NWFP) held off the stiff resistance of Hanif Raja to also emerge a 5-4 winner.

In other well contested matches, Farhan Noor, a youngster from Punjab, beat the Sindh Cup champion Shadab Baig 5-3. His counterpart Saqib Butt, seeded at No 6 in the snooker rankings, demolished Siddiq Samo 5-0 in only 15 minutes.

Nadeem Khalid from Punjab had to break into a sweat in overcoming his opponent from Sindh Qadir Siddiqui 5-3. The same could be said about Farrukh Gani, who surprised Younus Amir Baksh 5-3.

Pakistan’s top snooker star and former world No.3 Saleh Mohammad, had to bring out his best in holding off veteran Mohammad Akhlas 5-3, while Salman Sheikh had to do the same in finally silencing his opponent from Punjab Asif Mughal also by a 5-3 scoreline.

In Billiards, Sunny Shahani taking a 2-0 lead over Zahid Junejo, seemed to be a very worried young man when Zahid levelled the scores at 2-2. Zahid took the lead in the final frame and just when it seemed that he was heading for victory, Sunny in a late charge pocketed the frame and match 50/45.

Azdiar Mobed, a former snooker ranking player, got off to a fine start when he breezed past Najmur Rehman 3-0. But on Wednesday, Azdiar had a steep mountain to climb when he meets the former Pakistan and world snooker champion Mohammad Yousuf.

Other winners that breezed through 3-0 were Mesam Zaidi against M. Asif Kashif, Nadir Khan against M. Asif Anwar, Hassan Shuja against Zulfiqar Butt and Farrukh Ghani against Umair Anwar.

Following are the Pool results (First Round).

Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) bt Shiraz Sheikh 5-2; Anwar Saeed (Sindh) bt Junaid Umer (Sindh) 5-0; Aneel Bherwani (Sindh) bt Shah Khan (NWFP) 5-2; Imran Shehzad (Punjab) bt Jawaid Khaliq (Sindh) 5-1; Nadeem Khalid (Punjab) bt Qadir Siddiqui (Sindh) 5-3; Shoaib A. Khan (Sindh) bt Mesam Zaidi (Sindh) 5-4; Najmur Rehman (Sindh) bt M. Asif Kashif (Punjab) 5-1; Ahmed Bawany (Sindh) bt Noorul Huda Qazi (Sindh) 5-2; Naveen Perwani (Sindh) bt Sunny Shahani (Sindh) 5-1; Farrukh Gani (Sindh) bt Younus Amir Bux 5-3; Salman Sheikh (Sindh) bt Asif Mughal (Punjab) 5-3; Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) bt Mohammad Akhlas 5-3; Vishan Gir (Sindh) bt S.M. Tahir (Sindh) 5-1; Shahid N. Minhas (Sindh) bt Danish Baig (Sindh) 5-1; Umair Anwar (Sindh) bt Minhas Malik (Sindh) 5-2; Arifullah (NWFP) bt Aqueel Latif Baksh 5-2; Hassan Shuja (Punjab) bt Danish Karim (Sindh) 5-2; Zahid Junejo (Sindh) bt Bharat Satiani (Sindh) 5-1; Mohammad Shahid (Punjab) bt Kamran Razzak (Sindh) 5-2; Asif Moti (Sindh) bt Jamal Ahmed (Sindh) 5-2; Qasim Kamani (Sindh) bt Sh. Usman Ahmad (Punjab) 5-2; Mohammad Hussain (NWFP) bt Hanif Raja (Sindh) 5-4; Saqib Butt (Punjab) bt Sadiq Samo (Sindh) 5-0; Farhan Noor (Punjab) bt Shadab Baig (Sindh) 5-3; M. Asif Anwar (Punjab) bt Nadir Khan (NWFP) 5-2; Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) w/o Danish Haroon (Sindh); Zulfiqar Butt (NWFP) w/o Arshad Vatcha (Sindh); S.A.R. Qadri w/o Rambel Gul (NWFP); M. Jamshed (Sindh) w/o Bahuddin (NWFP); Shehzad Naseem (Sindh) w/o Atiq Latif Baksh (Sindh).

Following were the Billiard results (First Round)

Sunny Shahani (Sindh) bt Zahid Junejo (Sindh) 3-2: 50/21, 51/20, 23/50, 17/34, 50/45; Shah Khan (NWFP) bt Aneel Bherwani (Sindh) 3-1: 50/22, 51/21, 22/50, 51/32; Shahid Minhas (Sindh) bt S.A.R. Qadri (Sindh) 3-1: 53/42, 50/40, 18/52, 51/25; Mesam Zaidi (Sindh) bt M. Asif Kashif (Punjab) 3-0: 52/30, 50/20, 53/43; Ahaid Ali Khan (Sindh) bt Ebrahim Ahmed (Sindh) 3-1: 50/28, 50/12, 45/50, 50/25; S.M. Tahir (Sindh) bt Anwar Saeed (Sindh) 3-1: 50/41, 50/37, 47/50, 50/47; Nadir Khan (NWFP) 3-0: 50/15, 52/8, 52/15; Hasan Shuja (Punjab) bt Zulfiqar Butt (NWFP) 3-0: 51/35, 50/49, 50/35; Farrukh Ghani (Sindh) bt Umair Anwar (Sindh) 3-0: 52/49, 51/18, 53/35; Mohammad Shahid (Punjab) bt Bharat Sataini (Sindh) 3-1: 30/58, 50/43, 50/17, 53/32; Azdiar Mobed (Sindh) bt Najmur Rehman (Sindh) 3-0: 50/30, 50/17, 52/12; Ahmed Bawany (Sindh) bt Saleem Ahmed (Sindh) 3-1: 50/41, 52/17, 22/51, 51/30; Hanif Raja (Sindh) bt Shahzad Naseem (Sindh) 3-1: 22/50, 50/4, 50/22, 50/35; Vishan Gir (Sindh) w/o Bahaddin (NWFP); Yousuf Haroon (Sindh) w/o Danish Haroon (Sindh); Junaid Umer (Sindh) w/o Rambel Gul (NWFP).