KARACHI: Top seed Abdul Javaid and sixth seed Mohammad Afzaal were through to the knockout stage by winning their fourth successive matches in the eighth national under-21 snooker championship at a local hotel on Friday.

With four win under their belts apiece, the two cueists in all probability mayl emerge group A and F champions after completing their five-match engagements.

Javaid, who cruised to straight 87-0, 60-16, 56-12 victory over Mohammad Farooq on Friday, has conceded just one frame in four outings to Abdul Raheem on the opening day.

Afzaal also continued his giant killing run by getting the better of Hiskial Bilal 3-1 (63-38, 59-64, 55-43, 53-19).

According to revised format, 36 players have been equally drawn into six groups. At the end of the league, four best performers will advance into the quarter-finals directly while the remaining eight will play the last-12 round.

The league concludes on Sunday while the knockout round start from Monday.

Results:

M. Faheem Nazeer (Punjab) bt M. Azam Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 3-0 (67-62, 67-30, 59-30); Mohammad Ibrahim (Balochistan) bt Hassan Ali Adnan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 3-0 (62-27, 67-23, 98-10); Zubair Shamsi (Sindh) bt Fahad Ghaffar (Islamabad) 3-1 (35-53, 56-32, 89-40, 73-53); Hamza Ali (Sindh) bt Usama Haneef (Punjab) 3-0 (70-35, 64-28, 61-30); Mohammad Shaabaz (Punjab) bt Rabish Parvaiz (Balochistan) 3-0 (75-35, 58-33, 67-46); Hiskial Bilal (Balochistan) bt Fareed Firdous (Sindh) 3-2 (27-53, 53-39, 51-50, 21-63, 50-28); Abdul Javaid (Punjab) bt Mohammad Farooq (Balochistan) 3-0 (87-0, 60-16, 56-12); Adil Zafar (Punjab) bt Ghawish Khan (Sindh) 3-2 (59-49, 39-61, 73-40, 2-53, 89-43); Fahad Ghaffar (Islamabad) bt M. Azam Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 3-0 (62-4, 73-16, 63-46); Mohammad Ibrahim (Balochistan) bt Hamza Ali (Sindh) 3-1 (66-36, 8-63, 64-9, 76-12); M. Junaid Akhtar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) bt Maaz A. Samad (Islamabad) 3-0 (72-22, 69-34, 55-23); William Leffourgue (Islamabad) bt Nematullah (Balochistan) (Walkover); Mohammad Adil (Balochistan) bt M. Faheem Nazeer (Punjab) 3-0 (57-1, 61-21, 67-59); Hammad Rasool (Islamabad) bt Hassan Ali Adnan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 3-0 (51-40, 50-40, 58-18); Usama Qureshi (Islamabad) bt Mohammad Shahbaz (Punjab) 3-2 (19-57, 79-30, 59-39, 36-71, 61-24); Mohammad Afzaal (Punjab) bt Hiskial Bilal (Balochistan) 3-1 (63-38, 59-64, 55-43, 53-19)..

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2016