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| May 24, 2003 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 21,1424 |
Khurram sounds warning
KARACHI, May 23: Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha sounded a warning to the cueists trying desperately hard of ousting him from the top spot registering a break of 102 against Balochistan’s Mustafa Hyder on the opening day of the Seventh Red & White Style Snooker Championship played at the Karachi Gymkhana on Friday.
The 25-year-old had earlier notched a break of 48 in the opener and except for the third frame in which Mustafa won 73/53, the Balochistan cueist was all at sea against an opponent who seemed to be in fine nick.
Second seed Mohammad Yousuf was awarded a walkover, when his opponent from the Punjab Farhan Noor, failed to turn up. Third seed Saleh Mohammad showed that he was in fine mettle as he bulldozed his way past Irfan Rasheed Khan 4-0.
Fourth seed Naveed Perwani also got off to a fine start, halting Balochistan’s Mohammad Hussain in his strides 4-0, aided with splendid breaks of 48 and 77 in the second frame and 48 in final frame.
Sixth seed Atiq Latif Bux breezed past Janan Khan 4-1, aided with 54 points on the trot in the third frame, after the NWFP cueist won the opening frame 66/27.
Imran Shehzad, seeded at No.7, was awarded a walkover, His opponent Arshad Siddiq from the NWFP failed to turn up while eighth seed Shakeel Bhatti, accounted for Mukhtar Khan 4-1 but ninth seed Minhas Malik survived a rude shock. Trailing 1-3 and doomed for defeat, Minhas rallied magnificently to end the pretensions of Punjab’s Imran Mughal 4-3.
But 10th seed M. Faiq Malik also from the Punjab was not so lucky. Trailing 2-0 against veteran Yousuf Haroon, Faiq came back strongly winning the next three frames to be only a frame away from victory.
But Yousuf a seasoned campaigner taught his young opponent a snooker lesson. Pinching the next two frames Yousuf caused a minor upset by beating Faiq 4-3.
NWFP’s Arifullah seeded at No. 11 had little difficulty in disposing off Masood Ahmed 4-1. But the gifted left-hander Vishan Gir seeded at No.12, had to work up a sweat to finally get the better of Kashif Khan, after being in arrears 2-3 at one stage of the game.
In a match marred by many unnecessary calls of “foul and a miss”, Aneel Bherwani bowed out to Noman Awan from NWFP 3-4, after being on course for victory leading 3-1.
In another match that went the full distance Mohammad Akhlas leading 3-2 had to bring out all the tricks in the bag to finally emerge a 4-3 winner after Saqib Butt levelled the scores at 3-3.
Punjab’s Mohammad Nazir got off to a fine start in this tournament, silencing compatriot Raees Khan 4-1.
Results: Khurram Hussain Agha bt Mustafa Hyder 4-1: 62/28, 111/0, 53/73, 65/38, 64/35. Naveed Perwani bt Mohammad Hussain 4-0: 53/49, 126/12, 59/23, 78/17. Shakeel Bhatti bt Mukhtar Khan 4-1: 55/33, 71/25, 19/68, 59/49, 47/56. Arifullah bt Masood Ahmed 4-1: 30/70, 65/53, 62/16, 64/18, 69/31. Atiq Latif Bux bt Janan Khan 4-1: 27/66, 98/10, 94/6, 80/25, 61/8. Nauman Awan bt Aneel Bherwani 4-3: 9/41,48/73, 57/43, 19/63, 72/32, 85/69, 73/33. Mohammad Akhlas bt Saqib Butt 4-3: 56/33, 73/53, 39/63, 3/74, 59/19, 36/66, 55/48. Vishan Gir bt Kashif Khan 4-3: 54/80, 64/43, 64/36, 48/56, 51/55, 67/29, 67/23. Mohammad Nazir bt Raees Khan 4-1: 69/49, 59/57, 49/66, 82/35, 80/17. Minhas Malik bt Imran Mughal 4-3: 21/79, 75/24, 15/84, 1/67, 56/52, 81/48, 56/31. Saleh Mohammad bt Irfan Rasheed Khan 4-0: 61/43, 82/25, 55/3, 72/45. Yousuf Haroon bt M. Faiq Malik 4-3: 57/32, 57/46, 42/80, 23/53, 43/65, 57/40, 62/16. Mohammad Yousuf w/o Farhan Noor. Imran Shehzad w/o Arshad Siddiq.
Saturday matches start from 10.00 a.m.
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