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KARACHI, Dec 28: Holder Muhammad Akhlas, Muhammad Baqar and Kashif Khan were stretched to limits before reaching the semifinals of Sindh Cup Snooker Championship at Aly’s Parlour Saturday.
Top seed Akhlas fought a grim battle from 0-2 and 2-3 down to overpower Masood Ahmed after an intriguing quarter- final tussle 4-3.
Masood got off to confident start picking up the opening two frames with a break of 55 in the second. Akhlas came with vengeance, making a break of 68 in third and grabbed the fourth to draw level 2-all.
However Masood had more surprise in store, he captured fifth frame to gain 3-2 advantage. But Experienced Akhlas playing coolly in mounting pressure pocketed the 6th frame to make it 3-3.
Trailing by 18 points on a yellow ball, Akhlas wrapped the decider 42-32 to seize a place in the last four stage.
Muhammad Baqar twice came from 1-2 and 3-2 deficit to down Mukhtar Khan 4-3. Baqar chalked out a break of 56 in opening frame while Mukhtar compiled the break of 43 in third frame.
Najam-ur-Rehman was given testing time by seasoned Yousuf Haroon before going down fighting in fully extended match.
Talented Najam started in confident wrapping up the first three frames which contained a break of 42 in the first and 38 in the second frame.
Yousuf Haroon at this staged looked heading towards straight frames defeat. But potting smartly from all angles, Yousuf draw abreast 3-3 including a break of 35 in the fourth frame.
In a exciting finale, Najam kept his nerves and it bore fruit as he won the deciding frame 54-43 to storm in the last four stage of the championship.
Kashif Khan, however no problem in progressing to the semi final with straightforward four drubbing of Farrukh Usman. Kashif’s impressive win laced with a fine break of 55 in the first frame.
Muhammad Akhlas bt Masood Ahmed 4-3 24-57, 9-73, 68-0, 85-50 16-69, 74-59, 42-34, Muhammad Baqar bt Muktar Khan 4-3 92-15, 13-84, 25-80, 83-24, 41-68, 70-47, 87-52 Najam-ur-Rehman bt Yousuf Haroon 4-3 94-0, 85-18, 73-31, 52-75, 50-61, 35-59, 54-43 Kashif Khan bt Farrukh Usman 4-0 65-58, 72-29, 63-62, 73-18.
The 28th edition of prestigious National snooker championship will be held at KPT Sports Complex Hall from Jan 21-31, Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) announced on Saturday.
Fortyeight top cueists from across the country will be featuring in Rs204000 event. Twentyfour are directly placed in main draw while eight players from Sindh, six each from Punjab and NWFP and four from Balochistan had qualified for the championship.
The winner and runner-up of the championship will represent Pakistan in Asian Snooker Championship being held in Kolkota (India) in April next.
Farhan Mirza, who defeated Khurram Agha in last year’s championship 7-3 will defend his title.
Record 11-time national champion Muhammad Yousuf, who slipped to fourth in the national ranking will also be taking part in the event.
Other star players participating in the event including world championship losing quarter finalist Khurram Agha, Saleh Muhammad, Naveen Perwani.
There is an increase of ten percent in prize money with the winner taking home Rs70,000, runner-up picking Rs40,000, losing semifinalist Rs 15,000 each, losing quarterfinalist take Rs8000 each and even eight pre-quarterfinalist Rs3000.
The players will be drawn in eight groups and top two cueists from each group will be progressing into the pre-quarterfinals.—APP
