Imperious Bilal regains National Snooker title

KARACHI: Fifth seed Muhammad Bilal extended his brilliant form to overwhelm unseeded Asjad Iqbal in the all-Punjab final of the Jubilee Insurance National Snooker Championship here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Saturday.

The 33-year-old Bilal, belonging to Mandi Bahauddin, regained the national crown he had first captured three years ago. He shattered the dreams of the enigmatic Asjad, a year younger to him and hailing from the neighbouring city of Sargodha, who crashed in the final of the Nationals for the third time in his career without having won it even once.

Bilal, who remained unbeaten throughout the 11-day event, contested by a total of 56 cueists, emerged triumphant in the best of 15-frame final 8-4 with the scores of 60-54, 93-0, 99-0, 5-127, 0-97, 93-7, 88-39, 23-110, 92-30, 74-7, 35-71, 77-18.

The title clash, played at a brisk pace, lasted a little over four hours. Televised live on Geo Super, it was followed by the prize distribution ceremony in which Tahir Ahmed, Managing Director, Jubilee General Insurance Ltd, was the chief guest.

He presented a cheque of Rs100,000 along with the glittering trophy to Bilal while Asjad collected a sum of Rs50,000 for being the runner-up and an additional purse of Rs 10,000 for registering the highest break of the championship (139). The total prize money disbursed during the event was Rs 272,000.

In his brief remarks on the occasion, Tahir acknowledged the continued rise in the standard of snooker over the years, making a special mention of the record number of 29 century breaks compiled by the participating cueists during the Nationals.

The newly-crowned national champion, Bilal, complimented the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) for having taken care of cue sports with dedication.

He, however, desired greater government support for the cueists in order to let them fully concentrate on improving their snooker skills to bring more glories to the country.

Talking exclusively to ‘The News’, he described the semi-final against Zulfiqar Abdul Qadir of Sindh as his toughest match of the championship during which his opponent looked the most threatening to dislodge him.

“Thankfully, I got my top game going and didn’t allow much liberties to Asjad in the final. I knew he’s the kind of player, as we all saw today, who would have capitalized on a single mistake from me. I was able to control the match despite conceding a century, and I duly achieved my ambition of regaining the trophy,” Bilal remarked.

Asjad, on the other hand, didn’t mince words in stating that he was under pressure going into the final.

“Not because of the form or reputation of my rival but it was mainly a psychological barrier for not being able to win the previous two finals of the National Championship. And today, I was downed for the third time. I have won other titles but this trophy continues to elude me,” he regretted.

“I have had an up-and-down career at the national level. I am happy to have performed well in the Nationals again but obviously the title would have been an icing on the cake,” Asjad added.

Bilal exerted pressure on Asjad from the outset in the final. After narrowly winning the opening frame, he fired sensational breaks of 92 and 98 in the next couple of frames to move 3-0 up.

Asjad fought back with a well-compiled break of 63 in the fourth frame and he sustained the momentum by taking the next frame as well. But another big break of 73 in the sixth frame took Bilal into a 4-2 lead and he quickly made it 5-2 by snatching the following frame.

The match came alive when Asjad constructed a superlative break of 110 in the ninth frame to make it 3-5 at which point the 30-minute break was announced by referee Shabbir Hussain Daruwala.

Bilal was at his best after resumption, too, and he inched closer towards victory by taking the next couple of frames. Trailing 3-7, Asjad won the 11th frame with a break of 64 but Bilal sealed the fate of the match with his break of 76 in the next frame.