Sohail, Bilal battle for snooker crown today

KARACHI: Unseeded Sohail Shahzad shocked top seeded Mohammad Asif in the semi-final of the Jubilee Insurance 41st National Snooker Championship 2016 here on Friday.

A new national snooker champion is set to emerge on the horizon on Saturday (today) as third seed Mohammad Bilal, who edged out sixth seed Babar Masih in the other semi-final, will also be playing his maiden final.

Sohail, one of the most accomplished local cueists, blew the whistle on Asif, a former world champion from Faisalabad, 6-2 with the frame scores of 25-69, 67-6, 82-5, 84-47, 70-0, 14-74, 58-38, 64-14.

Bilal, hailing from the town of Mandi Bahauddin, edged out the obdurate Babar, coming from Rawalpindi, 6-5 with the frame scores of 73-55, 47-77, 97-15, 74-9, 0-112, 47-59’ 22-77, 95-0, 116-4, 64-69, 100-28.

The best-of-13-frame final will commence at 9 am.

The final between the 34-year-old Sohail, having displayed awesome form of late, and the 30-year-old Bilal, who has improved in leaps and bounds during the last couple of years, is expected to be a cracker as neither of the two cueists has lost any game in the competition.

Bilal faced tougher challenge in the semi-final where he was tested to his limits by Babar, who was not prepared to give up.

The marathon encounter, going to the full distance of 11 frames, lasted more than three and a half hours.

The first blood was drawn by Bilal but Babar responded with a break of 77 in the second frame to make it 1-1. Bilal reigned supreme in the next couple of frames before Babar got into the act with a break of 112 in the fifth frame.

Babar also won the next couple of frames to go into 4-3 lead.

Bilal took the eighth frame with a break of 72 and then compiled a magnificent break of 116 under pressure in the ninth frame to move to 5-4 lead.

The tenth frame went to the wire and Babar succeeded in winning it to take the match into the 11th frame.

Bilal held his nerves better in the decisive frame to send his opponent out of the competition.

There was no such drama in the other semi-final but Sohail’s feat of forcing Asif to submission was widely applauded.

Sohail, the only local cueist to reach the last four, received praise for containing the vastly experienced Asif, known for turning the tables from the tightest of corners.

Asif won the opening frame, but he was soon in trouble as Sohail won the next four frames, chalking up a break of 61 in the fifth frame. He was tamed in the next frame but went on to win the seventh and eighth frames to complete his well deserved victory.