KARACHI: Highly talented Mohammad Majid Ali and cue sport maestro Mohammad Asif stepped into the final of the Langnese ranking snooker cup after registering magnificent victories over their opponents in the pre-finals at hotel Movenpick on Wednesday.

Former national junior champion and 17th ranked Majid exhibited better acumen to whip 14th ranked Babar Masih 6-4 (78-49, 53-70, 63-37, 70-42, 15-90, 21-82, 73-33, 80-19, 44-54, 73-48) to reach first national ranking final of his career.

Top seed Asif halted the winning run of sixth seed Mohammad Bilal by sending him packing 6-3 (55-58, 61-25, 75-69, 49-70, 93-7, 2-69, 103-10, 59-46, 69-7) in the second semi-final.

Former world amateur snooker champion Asif is on course to win back-to-back domestic titles within a month as he had captured the NBP Cup recently.

Besides Bilal, who repeated his recent performance by making it to the last four, Majid is said to be the find of the event.

Majid, 22, losing finalist of Asian under-21 snooker championship at Indore in 2013, cracked three half century breaks of 70, 58 and 50 in the first, seventh and eighth frames while returning victorious in five- hour duel.

He surged twice, first 3-1 and then 5-3 before completing rout. Masih also came into the game by drawing level three-all and trailing 4-5 but to no avail.

Asif, who blanked Bilal 6-0 in the NBP Cup semi-final, conceded three frames on way to making it to the final. Both the cueists fought neck-and-neck until three-all but thereafter Asif had a firm grip and won the last three frames to post victory.

Results:

Semi-finals: Mohammad Malid Ali (Punjab) bt Babar Masih (Punjab) 6-4 (78-49, 53-70, 63-37, 70-42, 15-90, 21-82, 73-33, 80-19, 44-54, 73-48); Mohammad Asif (Punjab) bt Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) 6-3 (55-58, 61-25, 75-69, 49-70, 93-7, 2-69, 103-10, 59-46, 69-7).

Thursday’s fixtures:

At 10am (best of 15 frames final): Mohammad Majid Ali (Punjab) v Mohammad Asif (Punjab).

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2015

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