KARACHI, Aug 3: Saleh Mohammad reaffirmed his status as country’s best cueist when he retained 11th Red and White Cup National Ranking Snooker Championship beating an unlikely finalist Amit Perwani 6-3 Saturday.

By virtue of this victory Saleh, who finished third in 1997 world amateur championship in China, also secured a place in the two-member Pakistan team along with top ranked Khurram Agha for this October’s world snooker championship in Cairo, Egypt.

Saleh won three hour contest 73-20 72-35 54-71 72-17 33-70 72-26 80-16 41-52 69-11.

It was Saleh’s second successive victory in a national event after he won the Style national ranking title in April.

The Pathan made a confident start by grabbing the opening two frames with breaks of 56 and 41.

He dropped the third frame but consolidated his position by winning the fourth with a cracking break of 73.

Though a bespectacled Amit took the fifth and penultimate frame but Saleh wrapped up the match and the title with another handsome break of 69.—APP