Imran Shehzad and M. Shahid make it to final of 36th National Snooker Championship
Top seeded Imran Shehzad, Pakistan’s number 2, elbowed Pakistan’s number 1 and the fourth seed M. Sajjad out of the 36th National Snooker Championship held at Banquet Hall in Gymkhana, Karachi. On the contrary, the 2010 Punjab Champion M.
Shahid grounded his opponent Sultan Muhammad after a long battle.
The final of the 36th National Snooker Championship is going be a best-of-15 frame match. The winner is going to receive the trophy and prize money of 150,000 Rupees.
First Semi-Final between Imran Shehzad of Punjab and former champion M. Sajjad from Sargodha, who has claimed the title in 2008 and 2010, was a quick one. Both the players showed their skills making some good breaks for the audience and viewers.
Imran Shehzad won M. Sajjad by 6-3 with a score line of 78-6, 85-46, 0-80, 72-48, 16-88, 62-17, 75-21, and 63-24.
Imran took the first two frames making his lead 2-0 with breaks of 56 and 54 respectively. M. Sajjad however bounced back and made a classy break of 70 reducing the lead by 2-1. Fourth frame also was looking going towards Sajjad when Imran fluked a
red and produced another 65’s break good enough to take the frame. Fifth frame was dominated by Sajjad with a break of 47 and was now trailing Shehzad by 1 frame.
With a frame score of 3-2, Imran availed almost every given opportunity and won the following three in a row. M. Sajjad was also given with chances but he could avail none.
Second semi-final between the unseeded cueist M. Shahid and Sultan Muhammad went very long. The players fought for more than five hours. Shahid however secured his win by frame score of 5-3 and the score line was 52-43, 64-4, 86-63, 67-58, 4-108, 40-64,
70-37, and 58-46.
Sultan Muhammad who was the first local making it to the semi-final gave in to the pressure.
Shahid on the other side looked much composed as he had won the first four frames in a row and was with a lead of 4-0. The local this time holding his nerves from there clawed his way back and won consecutive three frames shifting the pressure back
on Shahid. With a frame score of 4-3 now it looked as if the scores are going to be equalled or Sultan may even lead.
But Sultan Muhammad made a few crucial mistakes and unforced errors which were capitalised upon by M. Shahid who made it to the final by winning next two frames and making the scores 5-3.
Overall, Sultan committed more mistakes as compared to his opponent. A crucial pink was missed by him in the last frame when he was going for the clearance and stayed on the jaws of pocket becoming a reason to be eliminated from the tournament.
Imran Shehzad and M. Shahid are going to play for their maiden title as neither of the players have done it before. Imran Shehzad however has an upper hand, as he has participated in ranking events before as well, and also because of his vital experience.
M. Shahid who is going to play his first-ever ranking tournament final will be comparatively under more pressure. However, we hope there is a good competition between both players.
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