2nd National Masters (Over-40) Snooker C’ship 2018: Imran, Shahid storm into final

KARACHI: Punjab prevailed over Sindh as its duo of Imran Shahzad and Shahid Shafiq cruised into the final of Jubilee Insurance 2nd National Masters (Over-40) Snooker Championship 2018 after outwitting their respective rivals in the semifinals at the Champions Snooker Academy in Lahore on Wednesday.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), holder Imran Shahzad and Shahid Shafiq reached the final by taming Maisam Zaidi and Naveen Kumar Perwani respectively in what turned out to be one-sided semifinals, unlike the quarter-finals held earlier in the morning session.

Imran Shahzad, hailing from the host city of Lahore, proved too good for Maisam Zaidi, coming from Sindh’s capital Karachi, whacking him 5-1 with the frame scores of 27-70, 90-20, 59-22, 64-37, 76-34, 80-1.

Shahid Shafiq, also from Punjab, dashed whatever chances Sindh had of claiming the title, by hammering the fancied Naveen Perwani 5-2 with the frame scores of 63-36, 66-48, 45-62, 66-13, 70-20, 16-81, 70-24.

The quarter-finals were contested in morning in which Imran Shahzad, Shahid Shafiq, Naveen Perwani and Maisam Zaidi emerged triumphant over Atif Baig, Fawad Hussain, Khurram Hussain Agha and Muhammad Nadeem respectively. Three of the quarter-finals went to the full distance of seven frames.Imran Shahzad faced no problems whatsoever in toppling Atif Baig, also from Punjab, 4-1 with the frame scores of 42-61, 79-15, 61-42, 67-27, 55-37 while Shahzad Shafiq edged out Fawad Hussain 4-3 in the other all-Punjab quarter-final with the frame scores of 57-19, 63-28, 31-64, 35-54, 61-22, 6-58, 82-1.

Maisam Zaidi of Sindh staged a magnificent comeback to turn the tables on Muhammad Nadeem of Punjab 4-3 with the frame scores of 67-5, 43-58, 20-65, 37-49, 68-9, 63-6, 69-19.

As expected the quarter-final tie between the two most illustrious cueists to have been produced by Sindh, Naveen Perwani and Khurram Agha, went to the wire with the former just managing to win 4-3 with the frame scores being 10-81, 65-24, 78-0, 28-72, 26-54, 64-19, 67-42.

Meanwhile the all-Punjab final, between Imran Shahzad and Shahid Shafiq, will be played on Thursday (today) at 11 am while the closing ceremony is scheduled to be held at 3.45 pm.

Imran Rabbani and Farid Mukhtar from Jubilee Insurance will be the guests of honour and will be giving away the prizes. Munawwar Hussain Shaikh, President, Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) and Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, Co-Chairman PBSA, have reached Lahore from Karachi to witness the final match and attend the presentation ceremony. A total of 32 cueists, divided equally in eight groups, had the preliminary rounds of the championship at the end which top two cueists from each group progressed to the knockout phase starting with pre-quarter-finals.