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| May 30, 2003 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 27,1424 |
Khurram takes on Saleh for top prize
KARACHI, May 29: Defending champion Saleh Mohammad will take on top seed Khurram Hussain Agha in the final of the Seventh Red & White Snooker championship after the two beat their opponents Mohammad Yousuf and Mohammad Asif 6-3 margins on Thursday.
Saleh, won this tournament last year after he arch rival Yousuf 6-2 in the final, but was beaten by Yousuf earlier this year at the Nationals by an identical scoreline. Saleh however, gained a measure of revenge by beating Yousuf this time by a 6-3 margin, after trailing 1-3 at one stage of the match.
In tremendous form during the qualifiers and the quarterfinal rounds, Yousuf was in front in the opening frame and needed only the blue ball to ahead 1-0. Trying to pot an easy blue near the middle pocket, Yousuf missed and Saleh sinking blue, pink and black, grabbed the first frame 56/46.
Fighting back tooth and nail, Yousuf much to the delight of his band of supporters pocketed the next three frames to be comfortably placed, as Saleh’s game went to pieces.
Saleh did have a chance to level the frame scores at 2-2. Leading in the fourth, Saleh threw away the advantage when Yousuf earned 12 valuable points by snookering his opponent on three occasions and then sinking pink increased his lead 3-1.
In a neck and neck duel in the fifth frame, Saleh potting black, won the hard fought out frame 66-65 to draw nearer 3-2 and was soon all smiles when he drew abreast 3-3, after he gained valuable points in the sixth after snookering Yousuf.
With confidence restored, Saleh went on the attack and running away with the next three frames, emerged a beaming 6-3 winner with a farewell clearance of 83 in the final frame. Saleh was on course for a break of 110, but missed yellow to miss out on a century. Till the semifinal rounds only one century break has been registered. Khurram Hussain Agha, 102 against Mustafa Hyder on the first day and the nearest any of the cueists got to a century break was 89 by Vishan Gir against Atiq Latif Bux on the last day of the qualifiers, 83 by Mohammad Yousuf against Arifullah in the pre-quarter-finals 83 again by Saleh in the semifinals.
In the other semifinal, top seed Khurram had to break into a sweat in overcoming the likes of Mohammad Asif, an unseeded lad from Rawalpindi, easily the find of the tournament, making only his debut in a the Stylish ranking tournament.
Many were of the opinion that Khurram would bulldoze his way past the Pindi youngster, who has an uncanny skill of playing well with both his right and left hands.
Asif matching Khurram latched on to the top seed till 3-3 and could have gone ahead 4-3 when he forced Khurram into two vital errors on the green ball. Trying to pot green in the top pocket which would have helped him get closer to the final, Asif was horrified to see the green ball wobble around the pocket.
Khurram making no mistakes now potted green to black, quite relieved to be in front 4-3. Asif fighting on bravely tried to keep Khurram at bay, but the top seed was now in full flow and picking up the next three frames came through a 6-3 winner.
Earlier in the quarterfinal, Asif made a triumphant entry into the final by warding off danger man Shah Khan 5-2 with effortless ease.
Khurram resuming his old rivalry with Naveen Perwani, came through a 5-3 winner, although Naveen was in front 2-1 at one stage of the game laced with a sparkling break of 72.
Saleh with two fluent breaks of 47 and 66, ended the challenge of Atiq Latif Bux 5-2, while Yousuf scoring 48 and 70 points on the trot in the second and third frames, romped home a 5-0 winner against NWFP youngster Nauman Awan, who reached the quarterfinal round for the very first time.
The final will be played on Friday from 3.00 p.m. in the best of 11 frames.
Quarterfinal results:
Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) beat Nauman Awan (NWFP) 5-0: 82/17, 61/60, 90/23, 77/2, 55/41. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) beat Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) 5-2: 72/29, 59/69, 67/61, 90/37, 70/27, 27/64, 67/42. Mohammad Asif (Punjab) beat Shah Khan (NWFP) 5-2: 67/23, 61/46, 67/24, 1/88, 63/83, 66/21, 63/21. Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Naveen Perwani (Sindh) 5-3: 87/32, 52/60, 8/73, 58/47, 59/51, 13/74, 68/28. 63/31.
Semifinal results:
Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Mohammad Asif (Punjab) 6-3: 68/21, 49/53, 70/17, 23/74, 73/7, 33/74, 68/44, 66/52, 66/30. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) beat Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) 56/46, 7/53, 15/54, 61/75, 73/28, 66/65, 76/28, 74/45, 98/8.
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