Pakistan storm into knockout stage in Ireland

Asif defeats India’s Manan 4-1 in IBSF 6-Red World Championship.

KARACHI: Pakistan continued to fly high in the IBSF Team World Championship as they thrashed India 4-1 in their fourth Group F encounter to maintain an unbeaten record so far in Carlow, Ireland.

With the victory, Pakistan stormed into the knockout stage of the event in style, and will play their next match today.

The duo of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sajjad has been in sublime form, ensuring that Pakistan had the upper hand in the initial stages as both won their singles’ frame to go 2-0 up.

However, India – represented by Shabaz Adil Khan and Shivam Arora – hit back in the doubles’ frame to cut down Pakistan’s lead to just a single frame.

But in the reverse singles, Pakistan cueists showed class as they overcame their opponents in their respective encounters to win with 68-7, 72-7, 48-66, 78-7 and 78-12.

With this result, Pakistan are now top of their group ,having registered four wins from the four matches played so far. They continue to maintain an impressive frame difference of +12 over their opponents in Group F. To add to their tally, Pakistan have won 16 frames from the four matches, conceding only four.

Asif sails into knockout phase undefeated

IBSF World Champion and Asian 6-Red winner Asif continued his dominance in the 6-Red World Championship as defeated India’s Manan Chandra 4-1 in his last Group D match yesterday.

With the victory, Asif ended up with the best results in his group, topping the table with four wins from four outings with an impressive frame difference of 11.

In his group matches, Asif won 16 frames and lost only five as he continues to grow in confidence with important matches coming up.

Against Chandra, Asif had little trouble in maintaining his supremacy as he won two of the initial frames, but Chandra made the score 2-1.

However, the world champion showed form – as he seeks to become the 6-Red World Champion as well – winning with a scoreline of 45-22, 49-43, 15-40, 45-12 and 35-0.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2013.

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