Imran, Sajjad make it 3 in 3, Sohail also wins

Pakistan cueists perform in World Championship.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Imran Shehzad continued his smooth sailing in the IBSF World Amateur Snooker Championship as he beat Emit Yigit of Turkey 4-1 in Damascus, Syria. Imran took the first frame comfortably 71-8 but went down in the second 66-45. The Pakistani, however, recovered in style to take the two frames 61-20, 123-0 including a century break. Yigit was simply no match for Imran as the Pakistan number one cueist took the fifth frame 92-9 to seal the win and register his third successive victory in the tournament. He had earlier defeated South Africa’s Faaris Khan 4-1 and Australia’s Vinnie Calabrese 4-2.

Sohail finds form

Sohail Shahzad regained his form to outclass Malta’s Alex Borg 4-1 to win his second match of the tournament. Sohail, who went down against Dutch cueist Roy Stolk 4-0 in his previous match, outplayed Borg in the first frame 88-15 before losing the next 85-25. The Pakistani found his touch in the next two frames as he comfortably won 76-4, 82-22 before a thriller saw Sohail clinching the final frame 64-63 to seal the match.

Sajjad wins as well

It was a tremendous day for Pakistan as its third cueist Mohammad Sajjad also registered a comfortable win. He beat Japan’s Shuji Hase 4-0 to also register his third win in the championship. The Asian number two won 90-0, 74-53, 74-54, 74-0 as he made it difficult for Hase to fight back.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2010.