KARACHI: Pakistan 1 comprising top two cueists, Babar Masih and Mohammad Asif, trounced India 2 (Pankaj Advani, Manan Chandra, Malkeet Singh) by 3-2 scoreline in the keenly contested final to win the Asian Team Snooker Championship at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Feder­­ation Academy in Doha on Friday.

According to results made available here, Pakistan won the final against arch rivals 110-2, 47-81, 72-70, 5-107, 98-18.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Pakistan 1 sent China packing 3-1 while India 1 struggled to beat Pakistan 2 (Mohammad Majid Ali and Mohammad Bilal) 3-2 to set a title clash.

Though 37 countries are in the fold of the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports (ACBS) cueists from only 14 nations participated in the team event.

Meanwhile, Bilal, Asif and Babar have won their opening fixtures in the 6-Reds event that commenced after completion of team competition.

6-Reds results: Mohammad Bilal bt Muneeb Al-Juboori (Iraq) 5-2 (31-28, 16-38, 57-1, 25-38, 53-17, 44-1, 53-38); Mohammad Asif bt Ehsan Heydari Nezhad (Iran) 5-2 (27-30, 39-10, 51-30, 27-1, 37-5, 24-52, 75-0); Babar Masih bt Abdulkarim Maksoud (Syria) 5-3 (8-40, 53-0, 0-45, 32-35, 62-16, 36-23, 67-0, 50-0).

Team event final: PaK 1 bt India 2 3-2 (110-2, 47-81, 72-70, 5-107, 98-18).

Semi-finals:India 1 bt Pak 2 3-2 (27-56, 62-51, 52-81, 90-5, 80-56); Pak 1 bt China 3-1 (28-91, 84-34, 61-34, 59-48).

Quarter-final:Pak 1 bt Iran 3-2 (0-104, 72-24, 59-69, 64-46, 59-46); Pak 2 bt Hong Kong 3-2 (20-58, 93-34, 85-12, 34-63, 73-39).

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2018