January 28, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 24, 1423

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KARACHI, Jan 27: Four seeds fell by the wayside on the seventh day of the qualifying rounds in the 28th Red & White National Snooker Championship played on Monday at the KPT Sports Complex.

Bowing out were ninth seed Minhas Malik, who had to win his last match against eighth seed Shakeel Bhatti, to keep his chances alive. But after leading 3-2 at one stage of the game, he fumbled in the last two frames with Shakeel emerging a 4-3 winner.

Tenth seed Arifullah met the same fate, going down to former Pakistan No.2 Mohammad Shafiq 4-2 on Sunday night and then losing 4-1 to seventh seed Atiq Latif Bux.

Sindh’s two promising cueists 11th seed Vishan Gir and 12th seed Amit Parwani were also forced out. Vishan was soundly beaten by Punjab’s Imran Shehzad 4-1 and Naveen who lost all his matches played, decided to give sixth seed and defending champion Farhan Mirza a walkover in his last encounter.

Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha with breaks of 34, 47, and 46, overcame Mohammad Nazir 4-1, Nazir fired one back with 67 points on the trot in the opening frame. However both cueists qualified for the knockout rounds from Group A.

Fourth seed Mohammad Yousuf accounted for M. Faiq Malik 4-2 which included a break of 43. Faiq replied with 53 in the fourth frame.Both these cueists also went through to the last 16 from Group D.

Seventh seed Atiq Latif Bux with a break of 32 and following it up with a splendid clearance of 94, ended the chances of Arifullah sneaking in through the back door with a 4-1 triumph.

Punjab’s promising Imran Mughal whizzed past Sindh’s Mohammad Baqar 4-1, and although he has a + 4 frame advantage will have to wait till Tuesday afternoon to find out if he will advance to the knock out rounds with Atiq Latif Bux in Group G.

In the same group, Mohammad Shafiq has to beat Punjab’s Saqib Butt by a 4-1 margin to overturn the tables on Imran, a feat which is not beyond the reach of the former Pakistan No.2

Of course it will be a sad day if Imran Mughal is eliminated. The youngster playing in his first National tournament qualified from the Provincial Cup as Punjab’s No.2 and has indeed given a good account of himself beating Shafiq 4-1.

Sindh’s Kashif Khan who finally got the better of Punjab Cup winner Mohammad Shahid 4-3, after staring defeat in the face trailing 0-3, has a slim chance from Group H to reach the last 16. But the match between Rambel Gul (NWFP) and Kamran Shah (Balochistan) on Tuesday should decide who will join Shakeel.

In other matches played, Yousuf Haroon (Sindh) cruised past Mohammad Hussain (Balochistan) 4-0, Masood Ahmed (Sindh) beat Balochistan’s Mustafa Hyder, after the latter was in front 3-2. Faroukh Osman beat Raees Khan 4-3, Mohammad Asif beat Najmur Rehman 4-2. Sindh veteran Mohammad Akhlas, who qualified from the Provincial Cup as Sindh No.3 demolished Nadeem Rashid 4-0.

Although beaten 4-3 by Mukhtar Khan, registering his first win in the tournament, Abu Saim was fortunate to reach the last 16 from Group C.

The lineup for the last 16 is as follows:

Group A: Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha and 16th seed Mohammad Nazir.

Group B: Second seed Naveen Perwani and unseeded Mirza Shadab Baig.

Group C: Third Saleh Mohammad and Abu Saim, provincial cup qualifier as Punjab’s No.6.

Group D: Fourth seed Mohammad Yousuf and 13th seed M. Faiq Malik.

Group E: Fifth seed Imran Shehzad and Shah Khan provincial cup qualifier as NWFP’s No.4

Group F: Sixth seed and defending champion Farhan Mirza and Mohammad Akhlas.

Group G: Seventh seed Atiq Latif Bux and Imran Mughal (Punjab) or Mohammad Shafiq (NWFP).

Group H: Shakeel Bhatti or Rambel Gul or Kashif Khan or Kamran Shah.

The last day of the qualifying round will get under way on Tuesday morning from 10.00 a.m.

Following were the results on the seventh day.

Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) 4-1: 19/67, 68/39, 64/10, 76/32, 84/4. Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) beat M. Faiq Malik (Punjab) 4-2: 51/33, 61/38, 58/22, 2/65, 58/64, 72/1. Imran Shehzad (Punjab) beat Vishan Gir (Sindh) 4-1: 43/72, 75/22, 59/17, 59/52, 58/49. Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) beat Arifullah (NWFP) 4-1: 68/27, 75/50, 109/17, 46/57, 64/33. Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) beat Minhas Malik (Sindh) 4-3: 51/53, 56/17, 90/32, 32/58, 38/70, 75/43, 65/25. Yousuf Haroon (Sindh) beat Mohammad Hussain (Balochistan) 4-0: 80/18, 56/29, 45/10, 43/7. Masood Ahmed (Sindh) beat Mustafa Hyder (Balochistan) 4-3: 60/18, 25/71, 49/71, 74/41, 17/64, 55/20, 76/32. Mukhtar Khan (Sindh) beat Abu Saim (Punjab) 4-3: 13/88, 65/22, 7/72, 48/40, 36/61, 74/6, 65/7. Faroukh Osman (Sindh) beat Raees Khan (Punjab) 4-3: 54/28, 63/20, 61/40, 5/68, 30/59, 37/49, 61/45. Mohammad Asif (Punjab) beat Najmur Rehman (Sindh) 4-2: 19/61, 74/29, 68/53, 36/67, 67/13, 67/38. Mohammad Akhlas (Sindh) beat Nadeem Rashid (Punjab) 4-0: 66/18, 91/17, 75/21, 58/49. Imran Mughal (Punjab) beat Mohammad Baqar (Sindh) 4-1: 34/66, 85/72, 75/14, 58/30, 72/11. Kashif Khan (Sindh) beat Mohammad Shahid (Punjab) 4-3: 61/11, 66/36, 64/24, 27/65, 36/79, 1/77, 70/20. Naveen Perwani (Sindh) w/o Ahmer Sheikh (Sindh). Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) w/o Fahad Asif (Punjab). Farhan Mirza (Punjab) w/o Amit Parwani (Sindh).