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| April 9, 2003 | Wednesday | Safar 6, 1424 |
Khurram to meet Imran in billiards final
KARACHI, April 8: Pakistan’s leading snooker player Khurram Hussain Agha, powered himself into the final of the Fourth Red & White Billiard tournament, registering a 3-0 victory over NWFP’s Inam ur Rehman at the Snooker Zone, main Shaheed-e-Millat Road on Tuesday.
Ranked No.1 in Pakistan snooker, Khurram proved to many, that he was as good in billiards, sending his wily opponent Inam crashing to defeat.
The only NWFP survivor after the shock defeats of top seed Saleh Mohammad and former champion Mohammad Hussain, Inam fought courageously losing the first game 83/100. But tightening the screws, Khurram took the next two games 100/63 and 100/60, to book his place in the final.
Khurram was later joined by Punjab’s Imran Shehzad, who had to break into a sweat in overcoming the likes of Sindh’s Shakeel Bhatti 3-1.
Imran the No.7 seed in snooker and Shakeel No.8, are two of Pakistan’s most attacking players and the fans braced themselves for a thriller.
After drawing first blood grabbing the first game 100/71, Imran was quite aware that he had a tough match ahead of him, when Shakeel pocketed the next game 101/43.
In a hard fought third game, Imran managed to keep his head in front with a 101/84 victory and continuing on his winnings ways pinched the last game and match 100/69.
Earlier on Monday, Imran shocked Mohammad Hussain 2-1, while Khurram had a bigger shock in store for the jampacked audience later in the evening, downing Saleh Mohammad 2-0.
In the other two quarter-final matches played, Shakeel Bhatti ended the winning spree of Danish Karim 2-1, while Inam-ur-Rehman surprised Sindh’s Minhas Malik by the same scoreline with the last game ending at 102/97.
Lady Luck however did seem to favour Minhas in the Nine Ball Pool tournament. Winning the first five racks, Minhas seemed to be cruising to a white wash triumph. But his brave opponent Atif Ayub had other ideas. Playing a better brand of Pool, Atif equalised at 5-5 and then went ahead 6-5, winning six racks on the trot. Completely bewildered with the proceedings Minhas managed to gather about his shattered wits and received a loud cheer when he equalised the rack scores 6-6. Now in a better frame of mind Minhas played well only to see his opponent take the lead in the final rack when disaster struck.
Atif tried to plant the No.9 ball off the No.5 into the third pocket which would have clinched victory for himself. He did succeed in his bold venture, but after the No.9 rolled into the pocket, Atif was completely horrified to see his cue ball follow the No.9, which sealed his doom.
Relieved that he had survived to fight another day, Minhas threw up his hands in triumph and received a thunderous applause from his band of supporters.
Khurram Hussain Agha too, was in for quite a scare before he rallied back to win his match against Sindh’s Masood Ahmed 7-6.
Making his presence felt, Ahmed Bawany beat Nadeem Iqbal 7-3 and Punjab’s Farhan Noor outclassed Sindh’s Farhan Ali by the same scoreline.
Sindh’s Salman Sheikh had to bring out his best in overcoming counterpart Messam Zaidi 7-5, while Imran Shehzadi had an easier time in ousting Danish Karim.
Sindh’s Sohail Shehzad winning the first rack against his opponent from Punjab Raees Khan, never had a ghost of chance to progress further, as Raees cleared the table with seven more visits t the table.
Earlier on Monday, Shehzad Nasim had to work hard in overcoming the stiff challenge put up by Mohammad Hussain 7-6. Also winning the final rack when poised for defeat was Najmur Rehman who silenced Sunny Shahani 7-6.
Inam ur Rehman had the easiest of wins blanking out Shahid M. Minhas 7-0.
Hanif Raja unlucky to lose his billiard encounter earlier to Atiq Latif Bux, when only five points away from victory, received another setback in Pool losing to Atiq 5-7, after taking an early lead. Also being stretched were Umair Anwar a 7-5 winner over Anwar Saeed and Asif Moti, who accounted for the iceman from Peshawar Shah Khan, also by a 7-5 scoreline.
Saleh Mohammad had an easier time in disposing off Bharat Satiani 7-3 and Shakeel Bhatti ended the pretensions of Nasim Paracha 7-3.
Following were the results in billiards. QUARTER-FINALS: Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) beat Danish Karim (Sindh) 2-1: 101/76, 49/100, 102/30. Imran Shehzad (Punjab) beat Mohammad Hussain (NWFP) 2-1: 100/70, 9/100, 103/74. Inam ur Rehman (NWFP) beat Minhas Malik (Sindh) 2-1: 82/101, 103/51, 102/97. Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) 2-0: 100/79, 102/37. SEMI-FINALS: Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Inam ur Rehman (NWFP) 3-0: 101/83, 100/63, 100/60. Imran Shehzad (Punjab) beat Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) 3-1: 100/71, 43/101, 101/84, 100/69. POOL RESULTS: Shakeel Bhatti (Sidh) beat Hasim Paracha (Sindh) 7-3. Shehzad Nasim (Sindh) beat Mohammad Hussain (NWFP) 7-6. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) beat Bharat Satiani (Sindh) 7-3. Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) beat Hanif Raja (Sindh) 7-5. Inam ur Rehman (NWFP) beat Shahid N. Minhas (Sindh) 7-0. Najmur Rehman (Sindh) beat Sunny Shahani (Sindh) 7-6. Umair Anwar (Sindh) beat Anwar Saeed (Sindh) 7-5. Asif Moti (Sindh) beat Shah Khan (NWFP) 7-5.
TUESDAY’S RESULTS:
Imran Shehzad (Punjab) beat Danish Karim (Sindh) 7-3. Salman Sheikh (Sindh) beat Mesam Zaidi (Sindh) 7-5. Raees Khan (Punjab) beat Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) 7-1. Farhan Noor (Punjab) beat Yousuf Ali (Sindh) 7-3. Ahmed Bawany (Sindh) beat Nadeem Iqbal (Sindh) 7-3. Minhas Malik (Sindh) beat Atif Ayub (Sindh) 7-6, Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Masood Ahmed (Sindh) 7-6. Mukhtar Khan (Sindh) w/o Ali Shehzad Butt (Punjab). The pre-quarter-finals, quarterfinals and semi-finals of Nine Ball Pool will be played on Wednesday beginning at 10.00 a.m.
The billiards final will be played on Thursday at 12.00 noon and the Nine Ball Pool final will be played on the same day from 4.00 p.m.
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