03 February 2005	Thursday	23 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Feb 2: Lahore's Mohammad Asif and Saqib Butt continued their winning streak, winning their third respective matches on the trot in the 30th National snooker championship played on Wednesday at the Karachi Club.

Asif who had earlier accounted for counterpart Nadeem Rasheed 4-2 and then Shakir Rafiq 4-1, disposed of NWFP's Nauman Awan by the same margin. Saqib a gusty player beat former Pakistan No.5 Shafiq Ahmed on the opening day and then bundled out Amit Parwani 4-2, had little difficulty in getting the better of Asif Ali Mughal 4-1 on Wednesday.

Also going through with unbeaten runs were Punjab's Shehram Changezi, and NWFP's Inamur Rehman. Shehram had to break into a sweat in overcoming Sindh Cup qualifier S.M. Ali Zaidi 4-3, after beating Sindh Cup champion Sohail Shehzad 4-3 on the opening day and then upsetting Rambel Gul 4-1 on Tuesday evening.

Inam making his appearance on the circuit after a lapse of two years, added another success to his tally after beating Masood Ahmed of Sindh 4-1. In the opener Inam beat Punjab's Mohammad Nazir, then sent eighth seed Vishan Gir packing 4-3.

With the top seeds out of action, Rambel after his disappointing defeat the day before, bounced back with a 4-1 victory over Abid Saleem 4-1, aided with breaks of 56 and 53.

Another cueist who returned to winning ways was the wily Mohammad Akhlas. After suffering two humiliating 4-0 defeats at the hands of Sindh's Saqib Zia and Punjab's Imtiaz Tipu, Akhlas finally awoke from his deep slumber to outpot NWFP's Arshad Siddiq 4-1.

Imtiaz Tipu however continued his winning ways ending the pretensions of Saqib Zia 4-2. Balochistan's Kamran Shah took his winning tally to two with one defeat after a 4-1 victory over Punjab's M. Shehzad. Also taking his tally to two wins and one defeat was Amit Parwani, who finally got the better of Mohammad Baqar 4-1.

Kamran Razzak after losing his first two matches, played some entertaining snooker in upsetting Mohammad Nazir, last year's semi-finalist 4-2. Raees Khan on song of registering a 4-0 victory over Tahir Hussain was quite surprised when Tahir caught up 3-3 before losing the final frame.

In two other matches that went to the wire, Salman Sheikh trailing 1-3 against Farrukh Usman, finally got his act together picking up the last three frames and coming through a 4-3 winner.

Nadeem Rasheed scored a 4-1 triumph over Shakir Rafiq. Winning by the same scoreline were Kamran Shah against M. Shehzad and Minhas Malik, who got the better of Qamar Khan. Shah Khan of NWFP kept his slim chances alive of reaching the last 16 stage with a 4-2 victory over Nadir Khan.

RESULTS ON THE FOURTH DAY: Nadeem Rasheed (Punjab) bt Shakir Rafiq (Sindh) 4-1: 69/12, 52/62, 53/27, 56/39, 75/15; Imtiaz Tipu (Punjab) bt Saqib Zia (Sindh) 4-2: 41/50, 59/42, 67/40, 41/66, 57/49, 63/51; Raees Khan (Punjab) bt Tahir Hussain (Punjab) 4-3: 62/2, 64/45, 61/14, 37/50/26/62, 48/54, 63/41; Kamran Shah (Balochistan) bt M. Shahzad (Punjab) 4-1: 31/45, 75/10, 67/32, 83/25, 59/31; Salman Sheikh (Sindh) bt Farrukh Usman (Sindh) 4-3: 60/34, 26/58, 54/63, 41/59, 80/10, 51/37, 66/15; Saqib Butt (Punjab) bt Asif Ali Mughal (Punjab) 4-1: 63/53, 65/29, 64/67, 73/37, 94/32; Inamur Rehman (NWFP) bt Masood Ahmed (Sindh) 4-1: 25/54, 68/44, 70/60, 61/36, 63/24; Shehram Changezi (Punjab) bt S.M. Ali Zaidi (Sindh) 4-3: 94/0, 60/2, 24/63, 58/16, 38/47, 34/72, 63/5; Mohammad Asif (Punjab) bt Nauman Awan (NWFP) 4-1: 61/27, 58/60, 54/4, 70/24, 83/15; Mohammad Akhlas (Sindh) bt Arshad Siddiq (NWFP) 4-1: 60/42, 20/68, 56/29, 90/46, 74/21; Minhas Malik (Sindh) bt Qamar Khan (NWFP) 4-1: 29/53, 58/46, 82/52, 59/40, 65/54; Shah Khan (NWFP) bt Nadir Khan (NWFP) 4-2: 66/214, 81/60, 57/32, 27/59, 61/65, 64/43; Shahid Shafiq (Punjab) bt Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) 4-3: 62/26, 56/63, 55/38, 55/60, 17/51, 56/44, 78/17; Amit Parwani (Sindh) bt Mohammad Baqar (Sindh) 4-1: 62/59,67/68, 58/44, 58/23, 63/31; Kamran Razzak (Sindh) bt Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) 4-2: 38/63, 64/46, 98/48, 60/68, 77/2, 66/21; Rambel Gul (NWFP) bt Abid Saleem (Punjab) 4-1: 69/30, 84/12, 73/48, 48/89, 77/30.