IBSF World Championship: Asif, Masih crash out, Bilal survives

Pakistani contingent shrinks following twin defeats in round of 32

KARACHI: Pakistan's top ranked cueist Muhammad Bilal is the sole Pakistani left in the 2016 IBSF World Snooker Championship as his compatriots Muhammad Asif and Babar Masih both lost their round of 32 matches in Doha yesterday.

Bilal won his round of 32 matches against Ireland's Thomas Dowling 5-3 in a close match to secure progression to the round of 16.

He lost the opening two frames to Dowling 44-52, 22-78 but came storming back to win four straight frames 72-25, 64-26, 56-46 and 54-42.



Dowling then took the seventh frame 43-73 before Bilal sealed the victory with a 64-25 win in the eighth frame.



While Masih's 5-3 defeat at the hands of reigning champion Pankaj Advani of India was understandable, few expected Asif, the 2010 IBSF world champion, to be upset 5-3 by Ireland's Michael Judge.

"It was rather disappointing for Asif to lose like this. We were hoping for Asif to easily make it to the next round as he is definitely a better player than Judge so the result is shocking for us," Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association official Naveed Kapadia told The Express Tribune.



"Regarding Masih, we knew it was a tough match as Advani is in a great form and is also the defending champion. Still, Masih put up a good fight," he added.

In the Master's category, Imran Shahzad defeated Egypt's Mohamed Noveir 4-1 and Naveen Perwani outplayed Brendan Thomas 4-3 in their respective round of 32 ties.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2016.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.