30 January 2005	Sunday	19 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI: Jan 29: Amit Parwani and Rambel Gul, two dangerous opponents of the game when the going is good, moved smoothly ahead in the 30th National Snooker Championship, which got under way at the Karachi Club on Saturday.

Amit seeded at No.11 in this tournament, breezed past Punjab's Asif Ali Mughal 4-1, registering the highest break on the opening day, after surprisingly surrendering the first frame to his stocky opponent.

Rambel with a ninth seeding, also breezed past Sindh's S.M. Ali Zaidi, after the NWFP cueist was another one to surrender the first frame.

Also registering 4-1 triumphs on Saturday, were Balochistan's Kamran Shah, who overwhelmed Waqas Malik with two fluent breaks of 42 and one of 41 and Farrukh Usman who ended the pretensions of Balochistan qualifier Abdul Rauf.

Also moving ahead was Saqib Zia, who beat terribly out of form Mohammad Akhlas 4-0, M.Shehzad, who surprised the bearded Shah Khan 4-0 and Punjab's Farhan Noor, who sent Masood Ahmed of Sindh packing 4-0.

In two matches that went to the wire, Raees Khan trailing at one stage 1-3, made a magnificent recovery to sneak past Naseem Paracha, an entry from the Sindh Cup qualifers.

Punjab's Sheram Changezi trailing 2-3 behind Sindh Cup champion Sohail Shehzad, finally got his act together to emerge a 4-3 winner.

Former Sindh Cup champion Shadab Baig had to work up a sweat in overcoming Shakir Rafiq 4-2.

The same could be said about Imtiaz Tipu, a 4-2 winner over Kashif Khan, Saqib Butt, who beat former Pakistan No.4 Shafiq Mohammad 4-2, trying to make a comeback after a four year lapse, Mohammad Asif who got the better of Nadeem Rasheed 4-2, after the latter had a 2-0 advantage and Minhas Malik, leading 3-0 at one stage of the game against newcomer Tahir Hussain, made heavy weather of the proceedings to finally go through 4-2.

At the time of filing this story, Sindh Cup runner-up Salman Shaikh was leading former Pakistan No.8 Shakeel Bhatti 3-2 and Mohammad Nazir and Inam ur Rehman were locked 2-2.

The round robin matches continue at the Karachi Club on Sunday morning from 10.00 a.m.

Results:

Shadab Baig (Sindh) bt Shakir Rafiq (Sindh) 4-2: 65/36, 71/8, 1/74, 35/70, 72/6, 79/32; Imtiaz Tipu (Punjab) bt Kashif Khan (Sindh) 4-2: 51/40, 73/2; 28/68, 61/28, 48/58, 63/22; Raees Khan (Punjab) bt Naseem Paracha (Sindh) 4-3: 76/46, 52/59, 33/81, 9/55, 60/1, 56/11, 58/21; Kamran Shah (Punjab) bt Waqas Malik (Sindh) 4-1: 83/62, 20/57, 72/32, 71/14, 78/30; Faruukh Usman (Punab) bt Abdul Rauf (Balochisan) 4-1: 88/2, 58/21, 56/36, 61/66, 58/15; Saqib Butt (Punjab) bt Mohammad Shafiq (NWFP) 4-2: 72/58, 64/12, 25/79, 61/51, 10/71, 72/48. Farhan Noor (Punjab) bt Masood Ahmed (Sindh) 4-0: 80/42, 68/8, 54/51, 59/14; Sheram Changezi (Punjab) bt Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) 4-3: 54/30, 41/58, 25/66, 80/1, 32/68, 59/17, 61/20; Mohammad Asif (Punjab) bt Nadeem Rasheed (Punjab) 4-2: 58/71, 48/62, 75/28, 58/25, 69/23, 65/18; Saqib Zia (Sindh) bt Mohammad Akhlas (Sindh) 4-0: 57/54, 62/43, 80/60, 63/45; MinhaS Malik (Sindh) beat Tahir Hussain (Punjab) 4-2: 65/15, 66/34, 73/9 32/58, 23/60, 67/7. M. Shehzad (Punjab) bt Shah Khan (NWFP) 4-0: 53/42, 72/1, 75/23, 67/43; Salman Shaikh (Sindh) was leading Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) 3-2: 66/19, 8/59, 31/58, 68/51, 87/28; Amit Parwani (Sindh) bt Asif Ali Mughal (Punjab) 27/60, 81/15, 69/22, 68/42, 69/39; Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) was locked 2-2 with Inamur Rehman (NWFP); Rambel Gul (NWFP) bt S.M. Ali Zaidi (Sindh) 4-1: 36/63, 79/40, 61/24, 79/24, 79/13.