Bilal blanks Taimoor in National Junior Snooker

KARACHI: Mohammad Bilal of Sindh whipped Taimoor Aftab, the Balochistan Cup champion, while Punjab’s Adil Zafar came from behind to outwit Mohammad Kashif of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the second day of league matches in the Jubilee Insurance 7th National Junior (Under-21) Snooker Championship 2015 here at the Movenpick Hotel on Tuesday.
It was second defeat on a trot for Taimoor, who was blanked by Bilal in straight frames. On the hand Adil showed great resilience to down Kashif in the best-of-five contest after having lost the first couple of frames. Adil sealed the fate of the encounter with a superb break of 73 in the decisive fifth frame.
As many as 10 of the 16 slots for the pre-quarter-finals have already been booked by the end of the second day’s proceedings while the remaining six spots will be decided on the basis of the results of the third and final day’s matches on Wednesday (today).
Those having qualified for the last 16 are Mohammad Saqib (Group B), Mohammad Nouman Iqbal and Aamir Tariq (Group D), Haris Tahir and Mohammad Bilal (Group E), Mohammad Ibrahim (Group F), Mohammad Fahim and Mohammad Hassan Anwar (Group G), and Fahad Khan and Mohammad Adil (Group H).
The top two cueists from each of the eight groups will proceed to the knockout stage of the competition, starting with the pre-quarter-finals on Thursday (tomorrow). The six-day event will be concluding with the final and the prize distribution ceremony on Saturday.
The Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) has declared that both the finalists of the event will qualify to represent the country in the Asian Under-21 Championship 2015 to be staged in China in April, as well as in the World Under-21 Championship to be held in the second half of the year.
The PBSA, pursuant to its policy of encouraging the promising youngsters, has also decided to let the four semifinalists of the National Junior Championship to compete in the all the four national ranking tournaments of the year.
Results:
Mohammad Bilal (Sindh) bt Taimoor Aftab (Bal) 3-0 (42-15, 58-57, 55-19); Adil Zafar (Pjb) bt Mohammad Kashif (KPK) 3-2 (23-63, 38-48, 67-29, 48-18, 81-40); Mohammad Fahim (Pjb) bt Sanaullah Sattar (Sindh) 3-0 (81-28, 86-0, 81-18); Fahad Khan (Sindh) bt Mohammad Ali (Pjb) 3-0 (86-21, 66-53, 61-29); Mohammad Nouman Iqbal (Isb) bt Usman Khan (Sindh) 3-2 (57-33, 41-76, 56-12, 15-69, 60-30); Haris Tahir (Pjb) bt Sameer-ul-Hassan (Sindh) 3-0 (61-31, 58-43, 68-41); Mohammad Ibrahim (Bal) bt Tanvir Baloch (Sindh) 3-2 (19-63, 77-48, 62-76, 73-49, 75-51); Mohammad Hassan Anwar (Isb) bt Muhammad Azam (KPK) 3-0 (66-29, 52-15, 68-35); Mohammad Adil (Bal) bt Junaid Babar (KPK) 3-0 (75-0, 66-8, 68-5); Junaid Ali (Sindh) bt Khushi Muhammad (Bal) 3-1 (55-13, 64-67, 62-32, 64-28); Mohammad Saqib (Pjb) bt Hazrat Ullah (KPK) 3-0 (59-23, 76-9, 75-0); Mohammad Afaal (Pjb) bt Gawish Khan (Sindh) 3-0 (90-35, 76-10, 70-24); Aamir Tariq (Pjb) bt Sameer Khan (Sindh) 3-0 (103-18, 97-5, 65-18).