KARACHI: Former national champion Shahid Aftab and Pakistan No 2 Asjad Iqbal, both from Punjab, were stretched to limits by local cueist Abdul Sattar and Mohammad Ijaz respectively before making it to the final of the ninth National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Ranking Snooker Cup at the bank’s sports complex on Monday.

Aftab, who won his maiden national title in 2011, made a remarkable comeback from 2-5 deficit to turn the tables on former international Sattar winning the gruelling semi-final by 6-5 frames.

He kept his cool to win the five-hour duel 56-66, 26-67, 86-40, 67-53, 14-70, 8-71, 20-63, 94-28, 78-44, 64-23, 61-30 in thrilling fashion. He piled up three splendid breaks of 63, 60 and 70 in the third, eighth and ninth frames.

The 14th ranked Sattar had a brisk start taking 2-0 lead in the best of 11 frames battle when Aftab leveled it winning the third and fourth frames only to trail again 2-5.

Sattar, who needed just one frame to wrap up the match, lost concentration and saw the next four frames and the match slip from his hand as Aftab rejuvenated his act together to reach a ranking final after a long time.

Playing first ranking final of his career, promising Ijaz, who is new find of the event, fought gallantly before bowing out 5-6 to seasoned Iqbal in the second semi-final

Iqbal, the silver medallist of the IBSF team event in Egypt recently, thrice surged 2-0, 4-2 and 5-4 when Ijaz displayed magnificent potting and drew two-all, four-all and five-all taking the match to the decisive frame where experience prevail.

The best of 15 frames final between Shahid Aftab and Asjad Iqbal will be played on Tuesday at 10am.

Results:

Semi-finals: Shahid Aftab (Punjab) v Abdul Sattar (Sindh) 6-5 (56-66, 26-67, 86-40, 67-53, 14-70, 8-71, 20-63, 94-28, 78-44, 64-23, 61-30); Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) bt Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab) 6-5 (83-5, 61-13, 41-69, 9-77, 71-51, 70-2, 52-89, 33-92, 62-43, 32-59, 63-15).

Tuesday’s fixtures: At 10am beat of 15 frames fi nal: Shahid Aftab v Asjad Iqbal.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2017