No last-64 rigours for Majid, Akbar

Pakistan cueists battle through to knockouts in world U21 event.

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s Mohammad Majid Ali and Hamza Akbar made it directly to the last-32 phase after winning all of their group matches in the IBSF World U21 Championship in Al Fujairah, UAE.

Scotland’s Chris Totten made Majid work hard in their seven-setter match, but the Pakistani youngster kept his calm in the tough contest to eventually win the match 4-3.

Totten had the upper hand in the early stages of the match as he won the first game, but Majid levelled by triumphing in the next frame. However, the Scot went onto build a strong lead of 3-1 which put him in pole position to win the match.

His aspirations were thwarted by Majid’s brilliance as the latter made an inspiring recovery to win three consecutive games, triumphing with scores of 33-71, 76-44, 18-66, 08-86, 64-23, 68-40 and 84-38.

Majid ended up winning the requisite four matches out of four to qualify for the last-32 stage directly. A loss would have meant the cueist progressing to the last-64 round.

Meanwhile, Majid’s compatriot had a close fight with Libya’s Adem Gerwash, as both cueists were separated by few points in several frames, but Akbar eventually overcame his opponent. While 4-1 may not indicate a close competition, Akbar had to give it his all to win by scores of 64-67, 73-45, 58-36, 62-52 and 54-51.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Faheem also qualified for the last-32 round of matches after knocking out India’s Sahil Nayyar with a thumping 4-0 win.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2014.

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