06 February 2005	Sunday	26 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Feb 5: Top seed Khurram Hussain Agha and second seed Saleh Mohammad sent out alarm bells for third seed and thirteen time National champion Mohammad Yousuf , by registering fluent breaks in the last round of the qualifers in the 30th National Snooker championship played at the Karachi Club on Saturday.

Khurram chalked up a fluent break of 124 in his 4-1 victory over Punjab's Mohammad Asif, with both cueists fighting it out for the top spot in Group A. But Saleh who tasted his first defeat in this tournament a few days ago, handed out a warning to his critics that he was still in the running for the championship by chalking up breaks of 113, 114 and 45 in his 4-2 victory over Mohammad Aklas to perch himself at the top in Group B.

Naveen Perwani the fourth seed with handsome breaks of 45, 88, 40, 45 and 34 in his 4-1 drubbing of Shah Khan, also made his presence felt topping Group D, but Mohammad Yousuf had to break into a sweat in overcoming the likes Minhas Malik 4-3, after the latter battling with Yousuf for the top spot in Group C, swept through the first three frames before Yousuf finally got his act together.

Yousuf had a break of 64 and Minhas 61 in the closely fought out final frame which Yousuf won 71/61.

Also reaching the last 16 stage was fifth seed Atiq Latif Bux who beat Shakeel Bhatti 4-1 with 55 points on the trot in the second frame and sixth seed Imran Shehzad, who also kept is slate clean with a 4-2 triumph over Amit Perwani.

Although he had a break of 74, seventh seed Vishan Gir went down to Punjab's Mohammad Nazir 4-1. Rambel Gul, after two defeats and trying desperately hard to reach the last 16 stage, defeated eight seed Abu Saim, who still managed to reach the last 16 with is first defeat in the tournament.

Winning by 4-0 margins on the last day of the qualifying rounds were Kashif Khan who beat Saqib Zia, Nadeem Peracha who accounted for Tahir Hussain, Waqas Malik who beat M. Shehzad and Sohail Shehzad who beat S.M. Ali Zaidi.

In a game that went the full distance, NWFP's Inam ur Rehman edged out Farhan Noor 4-3. Salman Sheikh, scored his first winner in disposing off Balochistan's Abdul Rauf and Mohammad Shafiq displaying his fine touch of years a gone, shut out Asif Ali Mughal.

Following were the results:

Khurram Hussain Agha (Sindh) beat Mohammad Asif (Punjab) 4-1:49/69, 65/33, 124/16, 86/39, 66/26. Saleh Mohammad (NWFP) beat Mohammad Akhlas (Sindh) 4-2: 30/63, 114/8, 71/40, 50/60, 114/15, 58/3. Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh) beat Minhas Malik (Sindh) 4-3: 37/51, 21/92, 23/61, 63/30, 61/38, 945,17, 71/61. Naveen Perwani (Sindh) beat Shah Khan (NWFP) 4-1: 71/58, 73/32, 104/20, 56/79, 84/20. Atiq Latif Bux (Sindh) beat Shakeel Bhatti (Sindh) 4-1: 57/38, 78/36, 26/62, 62/32, 72/36. Imran Shehzad (Punjab) beat Amit Parwani (Sindh) 4-2: 85/5, 75/45, 60/27, 15/71, 26/76, 68/44. Mohammad Nazir (Punjab) beat Vishan Gir (Sindh) 4-1: 90-/15, 57/48, 51/25, 8/119, 58/27. Rambel Gul (NWFP) beat Abu Saim (Punjab) 4-2: 69/28, 63/28, 8/71, 69/38., 28/67, 72/39. Shadab Baig (Sindh) v/s Nadeem Rashid (Punjab) walk over in favour of Shahdab Baig. Kasif Khan (Sindh) beat Saqib Zia (Sindh) 4-0: 76/51, 70/31, 54/53, 58/38. Naseem Peracha (Sindh) beat Tahir Hussain (Punjab) 4-0: 53/49, 68/39, 58/34, 53/14. Waqas Malik (Sindh) beat M. Shehzad (Punjab) 4-0: 69/47, 61/40, 65/5, 51/24. Salman Shiekh (Sindh) beat Abdul Rauf (Balochistan) 4-2: 71/2, 64/21, 43/53, 73/26, 36/66, 76/25. Mohammad (Shafiq (NWFP) beat Asif Ali Mughal (Punjab) 4-1: 68/36, 67/42, 33/58, 77/67, 57/16. Inam ur REhman (NWFP) beat Farhan Noor (Punjab) 4-3: 68/31, 39/66, 66/38, 0/93, 52/34, 33/44, 56/22. Sophail Shehzad (Sindh) beat S.M. Ali (Sindh) 4-0: 74/31, 68/35, 47/8, 87/32.