Babar, Ijaz storm into NBP Snooker final

KARACHI: Third seed Babar Masih and unseeded Muhammad Ijaz stormed into final of the 10th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship 2018 by overcoming fourth seed Muhammad Majid Ali and top seeded Muhammad Asif respectively in the semifinals here at the NBP Sports Complex on Sunday.

Saeed Ahmed, President and CEO, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), will be the chief guest on the occasion.

The 30-year-old Ijaz, hailing from the city of Sargodha, created the biggest upset of the competition by edging out Asif, a former world champion from Faisalabad, 6-5 with the frame scores of 65-42, 71-0, 32-74, 80-32, 53-43, 34-66, 53-65, 16-87, 74-29, 40-70, 64-33 while Babar, coming from Rawalpindi, tamed Majid, a youngster from Samundari, 6-3 with the scores of 68-39, 72-37, 61-72, 58-35, 8-97, 49-51, 71-8, 63-53, 80-43.

The first semifinal of the day, featuring Asif and Ijaz, went to the full distance of 11 frames and it lasted no less than five hours. The other semifinal, between Babar and Majid, also seemed heading in similar direction when deadlocked at three-all but the former won the next three frames on a trot to settle the issue rather leisurely in the end.

Ijaz, a younger brother of Muhammad Sajjad, three times national champion and a former world number two, played exceptionally well to keep the free-flowing Asif in check before ultimately knocking him out of the competition.

Top seeded Asif, who is also the reigning national champion, was unable to play his natural game and his inability to chalk up any substantial break other than one of 71 in the third frame didn’t allow him to stamp his authority over his unseeded opponent. Ijaz sounded a warning to his fancied rival by running away with the first couple of frames. Asif fought back to take the third frame but Ijaz won the next two to make it 4-1.

Asif had to bring his big match temperament into play as he recovered ground to win the next three frames which made the contest four-all. Ijaz turned it around by pocketing the crucial ninth frame but Asif declined to give up and made it five-all by winning the tenth frame. All eyes were on the two combating cueists neither of whom was ready to lose. The decisive 11th frame saw intense battle which Ijaz managed to win, not getting overawed by the occasion. The following encounter between the seeded cueists, Babar and Majid, also proceeded in identical manner with both of them showing skills and expertise.

Babar clinched the first two frames but Majid stuck to the task by running away with the fiercely fought third frame. Babar regained two-frame lead by taking the fourth one but Majid responded with a masterly break of 97 in the fifth frame to make it 2-3. Parity was restored when Majid also won the sixth frame after another tense battle. With three frames all it was anybody’s game and the spectators anticipated a similar finish as the one before it earlier in the day. Babar, however, didn’t let the game drift away from him from this point and he was in complete command after winning the eighth frame which took him to 5-3 lead. His break of 74 saw off Majid in the ninth frame.