KARACHI: Mohammad Sajjad, the losing finalist of world amateur snooker championship at Bangalore recently, maintained his ascendancy while brushing aside Rambel Gul 8-3 in the final to land the third ranking snooker cup at National Bank Sports Complex on Saturday.

Sajjad, who is in the best nick, coasted to an authoritative 8-3 victory over his opponent in the best of 15 frames final the scores being 16-60, 98-0, 67-11, 119-0, 75-23, 69-22, 59-66, 78-10, 31-77, 88-12, 53-16. Intrestingly, both the finalists belonged to group B.

The triumph also helped Sajjad earn back-to-back titles as he had prevailed over seasoned campaigner Imran Shehzad 8-5 in the second ranking final to claim the NBP Cup in September.

Despite losing a league match to Abu Saim 3-4, rejuvenated Sajjad struggled to beat Sultan Mohammad 5-4 in the quarters and sent Imran Shehzad packing 6-2 in the semis in the run up to the final.

The 28-year-old cueist, who had many honours under his belt, also earned distinction of scoring highest number of century breaks — five — in the event. However, the highest break award went to Imran Shehzad who piled up commendable 133 against Islamabad’s Shahram Changezi.

Sajjad, who leaped nine places in the national ranking after NBP Cup win to attain second slot has been assured top berth in the next ranking chart after a period of four years.

On the other hand, playing third ranking final of his career, Peshawar’s Rambel Gul accounted for former world champion Mohammad Asif 5-1 in the quarters and Karachi’s Abdul Sattar 6-4 in the semi-final.

“I was not up to the mark in the league and besides losing a match had made a comeback after going into arrears in other pool matches,” Sajjad told Dawn.

The country’s top cueist said he has set his sight on winning the world individual title that he lost in India on the decisive frame to Chinese prodigy and the world 6-Reds and team event at home next year.

Earlier Sajjad interrupted the winning run of Imran Shehzad by handing a 6-2 defeat to him in the semi-final on Friday night. The win also includes a splendid break of 125 in the fourth frame.

Sajjad earned a purse of Rs60,000 and winners trophy while Rambel got Rs35,000 and runner-up trophy from the chief guest, Karachi Commissioner, Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, at the prize distribution ceremony.

Imran Shehzad received a sum of Rs5,000 for highest break feat.

The ceremony was attended among others by Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) officials – president Alamgir Shaikh, senior vice president Wahid Qadir and secretary Munawwar Shaikh.

Result:

Final: Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) bt Rambel Gul (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 8-3 (16-60, 98-0, 67-11, 119-0, 75-23, 69-22, 59-66, 78-10, 31-77, 88-12, 53-16).

Friday’s result:

Second semi-final: Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) bt Imran Shehzad (Punjab) 6-2 (66-64, 76-54, 42-64, 129-15, 69-12, 22-74, 79-43, 72-12).

Published in Dawn December 14th , 2014