KARACHI: It was an unusual day in ranking snooker event when barring two exceptions, half-a-dozen seeded players tasted astonishing defeats in the 11th National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) ranking snooker championship at bank’s sports complex on Monday.

Those who fell prey include top seed Mohammad Bilal, fourth seed Ali Haider, fifth seed Babar Masih, sixth seed and defending champion Mohammad Ijaz, seventh seed Mohammad Asif and eighth seed Agha Bilawal.

Second seed Asjad Iqbal chalked up 4-1 victory over Mohammad Ahsan Javaid as third seed Zulfiqar A Qadir had a rest day.

Prodigy Ahsan Ramzan, semi-finalist of this year’s national U-18 and U-21 championships, pulled off the biggest upset while routing reigning national champion Mohammad Bilal 4-1(68-30, 74-50, 70-47, 24-77, 69-55).

Bilal, who together with Asjad won the IBSF World Snooker Team Cup at Doha recently, was at the receiving end and could only win a frame.

Sindh’s Sohail Shahzad hammered a century break of 128 in the third frame while getting the better of Hamza Ilyas straight 58-51, 62-19, 128-0, 56-20.

This is the second century break after Babar Masih’s 136 the other day.

Results: Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) bt Ali Haider (Punjab) 4-1 (69-10, 91-46, 66-23, 4-73, 75-0); Mohammad Shahbaz (Punjab) bt Shahid Aftab (Punjab) 4-2 (71-39, 82-48, 32-56, 18-40, 77-52, 70-44); Amir Tariq (Punjab) bt Agha Bilawal (Sindh) 4-2 (77-42, 20-72, 73-49, 50-73, 63-33, 88-23); Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) bt Hamza Ilyas (Punjab) 4-0 (58-51, 62-19, 128-0, 56-20); Rashid Aziz (Punjab) bt Babar Masih (Punjab) 4-2 (79-0, 89-26, 42-71, 95-6, 24-75, 65-33); Haris Tahir (Punjab) bt M. Imran Qamar (Punjab) 4-1 (54-34, 20-86, 61-27, 68-53, 65-14); Sheikh Mohammad Mudassir (Punjab) bt Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab) 4-3 (73-60, 15-66, 76-31, 15-59, 69-15, 5-104, 74-54); Mohammad Naseem Akhtar (Punjab) bt Sharjeel

Mehmood (Khyber ) 4-3 (109-20, 22-61, 53-67, 70-45, 68-17, 36-61, 99-0); Mubashir Raza (Punjab) bt Mohammad Asif (Punjab) 4-2 (83-16, 64-13, 9-81, 0-94, 67-55, 52-3); Abdul Sattar (Sindh) bt Agha Bilawal (Sindh) 4-3 (64-2, 22-68, 104-0, 23-51, 78-8, 0-72, 100-16); Amir Tariq (Punjab) bt Hamza Ilyas (Punjab) 4-0 (63-29, 68-15, 73-1, 60-32); Ahsan Ramzan (Punjab) bt Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) 4-1 (68-30, 74-50, 70-47, 24-77, 69-55); Imran Shahzad (Punjab) bt Mohammad Mudassir (Islamabad) 4-1 (80-15, 73-22, 84-0, 22-62, 84-0).

Sunday’s remaining results: Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) bt Mohammad Mudassir (Islamab) 4-2 (65-44, 54-12, 51-63, 50-61, 64-24, 59-47); Zulfiqar A. Qadir (Sindh) bt Aakash Rafique (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 4-2 (70-57, 44-76, 75-44, 72-54, 4-88, 88-9); Rambel Gul (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) bt Abu Saim (Punjab) 4-3 (21-76, 78-56, 13-94, 64-36, 62-60, 34-71, 61-57).

Tuesday’s fixtures:

At 10am: Agha Bilawal (Sindh) vs Sohail Shahzad (Sindh), Abdul Sattar (Sindh) vs Amir Tariq (Punjab), Mohammad Asif (Punjab) vs Sultan Mohammad (Sindh), Mubashir Raza (Punjab) vs Rizwan Hashmi (Sindh).

At 12noon: Babar Masih (Punjab) vs Haris Tahir (Punjab), Rashid Aziz (Punjab) vs M. Imran Qamar (Punjab), Mohammad Ijaz (Punjab) vs Mohammad Naseem Akhtar (Punjab), Sheikh Mohammad Mudassir (Punjab) vs Sharjeel Mehmood (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

At 2pm: Zulfiqar A. Qadir (Sindh) vs Abu Saim (Punjab), Rambel Gul (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) vs Aakash Rafique (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Ali Haider (Punjab) vs Mohammad Shahbaz (Punjab), Shahid Aftab (Punjab) vs Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab).

At 4pm: Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) vs Mohammad Majid Ali (Punjab), Ahsan Ramzan (Punjab) vs Abdul Raziq (Balochistan), Asjad Iqbal (Punjab) vs Imran Shahzad (Punjab), Mohammad Ahsan Javaid (Punjab) vs Mohammad Mudassir (Islamabad).

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2019