KARACHI: Despite their dismal run, the trio of Pakistani cueists was lucky to advance into the last-32 round of the IBSF 6-Reds World Snooker Championship in Mandalay on Wednesday after registering victories in the last-48 round.

According to results made available here, Mohammad Ahsan Javaid, who finished runner-up in group G with two wins and a defeat, stormed back from 1-2 down to post 4-2 victory over Nirmal Bogati of Nepal the scores being 16-37, 32-12, 3-33, 45-20, 41-6, 33-9. The group was shortened to four players following late withdrawal of a cueist.

Ahsan is drawn against world snooker and billiards celebrity Pankaj Advani in the last-32 match.

Country’s top two cueists Mohammad Asif and Zulfiqar A. Qadir meanwhile, finished third in group F and K respectively. The former world champion, who could only win two of the four matches in his group, was home 4-0 over Qatar’s Ahmed Saif (64-0, 55-0, 61-0, 36-25) to cruise into last-32. He is pitted against Habib Sabah of Bahrain in the next fixture.

Zulfiqar, who only won a single match out of three, carved out 4-1 victory over Indian Akshay Kumar (43-12, 38-0, 19-43, 57-0, 36-26). His group matches were also curtailed to to three due to a late withdrawal. He now meets Indian Anuj Uppal in the next tie.

Results:

Last-48 round:

Mohammad Ahsan Javaid bt Nirmal Bogati (Nepal) 4-2 (16-37, 32-12, 3-33, 45-20, 41-6, 33-9); Zulfiqar A. Qadir bt Akshay Kumar (India) 4-1 (43-12, 38-0, 19-43, 57-0, 36-26); Mohammad Asif bt Ahmed Saif (Qatar) 4-0 (64-0, 55-0, 61-0, 36-25).

Tuesday’s remaining result:

Kamal Chawla (India) bt Zulfiqar A.Qadir 4-2 (5-56, 33-9, 38-30, 52-10, 9-35, 32-28).

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019