March 8, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 7, 1427

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KARACHI, March 7: Muhammad Akhlas, a former provincial champion, and Irfan Rasheed Khan fought their way in the final of the Sindh Snooker Cup after winning pre-finals with ease at Snooker Zone on Tuesday.

Akhlas dropped two frames on way to chalking up a 4-2 win over Kashif Khan. Final scores were 10-61, 139-6, 65-21, 36-57, 75-53, 84-34. The former piled up a break of 67 in the second frame after Kashif had cracked a break of 50 in the opener.

Vishan Gir who has been amongst top eight in national ranking in the past, met his waterloo when he was knocked out 4-1 by Irfan. The latter was home 62-72, 75-47, 70-35, 67-24, 62-54.

The pre-finals were preceded by quarterfinals. Vishan carved out 4-0 win over Mohammad Kashif, Irfan Rasheed inflicted 4-1 defeat on Jawed Ansari, Akhlas got the better of Mesam Zaidi 4-2 while Kashif was stretched to full distance by Kamran Razzak before emerging 4-3 winner.

Meanwhile, the top eight cueists have qualified to represent Sindh in the coming 31st National snooker championship being held at Snooker Zone from March 20.

Earlier, the country’s premier snooker championship was scheduled to take place at Lahore.

Results:

(Quarterfinals)

Vishan Gir bt Mohammad Kashif 4-0 (66-29, 62-33, 73-38, 65-51); Irfan Rasheed Khan bt Jawed Ansari 4-1 (46-54, 80-40, 72-6, 73-56, 65-34); Mohammad Akhlas bt Syed Mesam Zaidi 4-2 (55-44, 38-67, 20-81, 57-14, 69-49, 65-37 ); Kashif Khan bt Kamran Razzak 4-3 (65-72, 54-44, 29-63, 24-60, 70-30, 69-10, 65-42).

(Semifinals)

Irfan Rasheed Khan bt Vishan Gir 4-1 (62-72, 75-47, 70-35, 67-24, 62-54); Mohammad Akhlas bt Kashif Khan 4-2 (10-61, 139-6, 65-21, 36-57, 75-53, 84-34).

Wednesday’s fixtures:

Irfan Rasheed Khan v Mohammad Akhlas (final) at 3.00pm