KARACHI, Jan 25: Second seed Naveen Perwani survived another scare, when he came from behind and landed a 4-3 triumph over Sindh Cup runner-up Masood Ahmed 4-3, in the 28th Red & White National Snooker Championship on Friday.

After winning the first two frames with ease, helped on with a breaks of 34 in the opener and following it up with 32 and 35 in the second, Naveen’s game suddenly went to pieces. He made too many unforced errors which helped Masood draw level 2-2, pocketing the next two frames and also surge ahead 3-2.

For the second time in this tournament Naveen was on the brink of despair. But the No.2 was not giving up in a hurry. Scoring a few points and going for safety on every visit to the table, he slowly and surely built up a sizable lead, which helped him take the last two frames 56/47 and 59/39 for victory.

Seventh seed Atiq Latif Bux, also had to break into a sweat in overcoming Mohammad Baqar. After grabbing the opening frame 98/13, helped on with a splendid break of 62, Atiq was soon 1-2 in deficit, when Baqar snatched the next two frames. However another fine break of 39, helped Atiq come back on even keel 2-2 and was soon in front 3-2, only a frame away from victory. But Baqar fighting back tooth and nail was level again at 3-3, potting pink and black.

In the final frame Atiq back to his best grab the frame and the match 4-3.

Lahore’s promising youngster Imran Mughal, with a magnificent clearance of 94, beat the former Pakistan No.2 Mohammad Shafiq 4-3, to keep his chances of qualifying for the last 16. In other matches that went the full distance NWFP’s Nauman Awan registered his second success in the tournament, beating Punjab’s Nadeem Rashid in a see-saw tussle. Mustafa Hyder heading for another defeat trailing 1-3, came back strongly with a superb break of 66 and continuing to score with every opportunity offered to him levelled the frame scores 3-3 and soon sneaked past a 4-3 winner, bagging the seventh and last frame.

Raees Khan from Punjab won his first match in the tournament, beating NWFP’s Arshad Siddiq 4-3, after being comfortably placed 2-0 and then 3-2 as the match progressed. Also winning his first match was Mohammad Hussain from Balochistan who beat his counterpart Zafran, by a 4-2 scoreline.

Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha sounding breaks of 54, 32, 47 and 45, brushed aside the wily veteran Yousuf Haroon 4-2, after the later caught up at 2-2. Third seed Saleh Mohammad, had little difficulty in disposing off Mukhtar Khan through fine breaks of 44, 35 and 37. Mukhtar although scoring 38 points on the trot in the fourth frame, still could not match Saleh’s skill with the cue.

Also moving smoothly ahead with 4-0 win was fourth seed Mohammad Yousuf, who chalked up breaks of 43 and 30 along with 37 and 42 in the third and fourth frames. Fifth seed Imran Shehzad did better while squeezing out Najmur Rehman 4-0, with breaks of 40, 46 and 54, while Shakeel Bhatti the eight seed had little difficulty in beating Kashif Khan 4-0.

Defending champion and sixth seed Farhan Mirza, seemed relaxed in his 4-1 success over Sindh’s Mohammad Akhlas.

The silent assassin Shah Khan moved closer for a chance of qualifying for the last 16, demolishing Mohammad Asif 4-1. The same could be said about Rambel Gul delivering the Punjab Cup winner Mohammad Shahid his third straight defeat, coming through a 4-2 winner.

Following are the fifth day’s results:

Khurram Hussain Agha bt Yousuf Haroon 4-2: 91/12, 82/32, 100/15, 14/84, 45.57, 62/24. Naveen Perwani bt Masood Ahmed 4-3: 84/4, 79/16, 29/68, 46/55, 24/59, 56/47, 59/39. Saleh Mohammad bt Mukhtar Khan 4-0: 92/9, 76/10, 65/55, 62/50. Mohammad Yousuf bt Faroukh 4-0: 61/48, 59/38, 82/6, 84/7. Imran Shehzad bt Najmur Rehman 4-0: 90/9, 69/38, 65/6, 77/20. Farhan Mirza bt Mohammad Akhlas 4-1: 70/21, 77/39, 73/28, 49/70, 72/41. Atiq Latif Bux bt Mohammad Baqar 4-3: 98/13, 11/74, 24/59, 66/25, 60/14, 66/67, 49/30. Shakeel Bhatti bt Kashif Khan 4-0: 61/38, 73/38, 60/28, 55/12. Shah Khan bt Mohammad Asif 4-1: 30/64, 68/32, 83/18, 60/18, 86/14. Nauman Awan bt Nadeem Rashid 4-3: 14/59, 65/63, 52/63, 74/32, 70/12, 17/63, 59/39. Rambel Gul bt Mohammad Shahid 4-2: 69/61, 45/69, 46/47, 59/48, 69/61, 91/16. Abu Saim bt Yousuf Khan 4-0: 52/14, 61/26, 62/20, 58/38. Mohammad Hussain bt Zarfan 4-2: 54/27, 49/44, 66/55, 34/67, 48/67, 50/39. Mustafa Hyder beat Janan Khan 8/64, 72/9, 17/64, 27/75, 80/1, 63/52, 53/43. Raees Khan beat Arshad Siddiq 4-3: 63/24, 61/35, 13/108, 20/64, 62/31, 50/61, 73/9.