KARACHI: With many feathers in his cap, former national champion Mohammad Sajjad made a surprise comeback on the domestic circuit when he stormed back from 2-4 down to stun fourth seed and incumbent national champion Mohammad Bilal in exciting match by 5-4 frames to enter final of Jubilee Insurance third national ranking snooker championship at the Karachi Gymkhana on Wednesday.

Sajjad is slated to face country’s top cueist and former world champion Mohammad Asif in the best of 13 frames final on Thursday after the latter coasted to 5-1 frames victory over ninth seed Sohail Shahzad in another contrasting semi-final.

It is interesting to note that both the finalists belonged to group ‘A’ and Asif had defeated Sajjad 4-2 in the league match to top the group.

It is pertinent to mention that Sajjad’s last shining performance came when he inflicted 8-6 defeat on his pupil Asjad Iqbal in the final of the 42nd country’s premier snooker championship on March 21, 2017 to win his third national title.

His previous two successes in the national’s had come against now Afghanistan-based Saleh Mohammad in 2008 and against Asjad in 2010.

Runner-up of the world snooker championship to Chinese Yan Bingtao in 2014, Sajjad has been struggling with form during the last two-and-a-half years and among those who also ran.

Sajjad, 32, who overcome Sindh’s Abdul Sattar in the fully stretched battle 5-4 the other day, had a same run and after a see-saw ended on a high with a splendid break of 117 in the last frame. The final scores were 22-67, 72-1, 8-59, 69-29, 62-64, 23-73, 88-6, 62-50, 126-7. The math lasted for two hour an 50-minutes,

Top seed Asif, who had a smooth 5-2 sailing over Asjad in the quarter-final on Tuesday, made his mark yet again with a resounding 5-1 triumph over last local survivor and ninth seed Sohail Shahzad.

After conceding the second frame Asif kept his grip and never allowed his opponent to settle. He won the duel 81-43, 45-68, 52-6, 76-6, 61-17, 93-31 that lasted for an hour and 55 minutes.

Results:

Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) bt Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) 5-4 (22-67, 72-1, 8-59, 69-29, 62-64, 23-73, 88-6, 62-50, 126-7); Mohammad Asif (Punjab) bt Sohail Shahzad (Sindh) 5-1 (81-43, 45-68, 52-6, 76-6, 61-17, 93-31).

Thursday’s fixtures:

At 10am: Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab) vs Mohammad Asif (Punjab) final.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2019