Pak cueists’ march towards glory continues

KARACHI: Pakistan’s march towards glory continued for the sixth day running in the twin international events being held at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Monday, both the Pakistan outfits directly qualified for the round of 32 of the IBSF Team Snooker Championship 2016, while Mohammad Bilal, Babar Masih, Asjad Iqbal and Sohail Shahzad remained on course to secure their spots in the knockout round of the IBSF 6-Reds Snooker Championship 2016.

Pakistan-1, comprising Babar and Asjad, topped the Group C by winning all four league matches — against Egypt-16, Egypt-3, Jordan and Saudi Arabia-1.

Pakistan-2, consisting of Bilal and Sohail, advanced to the knockout round by winning three of the four matches in the Group B. They overpowered Egypt-15, Egypt-2 and Qatar-1 and lost to India-8.

The participating 65 teams were divided into 13 groups for the preliminary round.

Pakistan’s cueists have also been performing creditably in the IBSF 6-Reds Snooker Championship in which 145 cueists from 26 countries are taking part.

Bilal boosted his chances of proceeding to the next round by defeating the dangerous Ali Jalil Ali of Iraq 4-2 with the frame scores of 45-7, 0-36, 38-12, 19-29, 38-16, 33-2.

Babar was even more ruthless as he whipped Karim Elabd of Egypt in straight frames with the scores of 41-39, 50-0, 44-21, 42-23 which included a break of 50 in the second frame.