KARACHI: Pakistan earned a lion’s share after its quartet cruised into the last-16 (pre quarter-final) knockout round of the 15th Asian under-21 snooker championship in the Indian city of Chandigarh on Wednesday.

According to results made available here, country’s top junior cueist Mohammad Majid Ali, who topped group B with an unbeaten record, has been seeded on top following reseeding.

Majid’s other three compatriot’s – Hamza Akbar, Mohammad Haris Nadeem and Amir Tariq – are reseeded seventh, 13th and 14th respectively.

In the remaining two group matches, Hamza handed out a magnificent 4-0 victory over Sri Lankan Amin Shamil the scores being 94-16, 62-28, 40-9, 64-21.

However, despite suffering straight loss to Thailand’s Sittichan Chiewchan, his second defeat in four games, Amir managed to advance into the knockout stage.

The Thai cueist won the battle 57-15, 69-12, 67-16, 63-49.

Results: Sittichan Chiewchan (Thailand) bt Amir Tariq (Pakistan) 4-0 (57-15, 69-12, 67-16, 63-49); Hamza Akbar (Pakistan) bt Amin Shamil (Sri Lanka) 4-0 (94-16, 62-28, 40-9, 64-21).

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2014