Sajjad, Hamza keep Pro World Cup hopes alive

Pakistan cueists beat Qatar 4-1 in prestigious snooker event

KARACHI: Pakistan cueists Mohammad Sajjad and Hamza Akbar registered their second win in the ongoing Professional Snooker World Cup after beating Qatar 4-1 to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the second round in Wuxi, China.

Pakistan have one match remaining against competitors Northern Ireland, whom they need to beat with a 4-1 margin at the very least while hoping that Australia lose their last group match.

The win against Qatar took Pakistan’s points-tally to nine in the group which is led by Wales, who have 17 points to their credit.

Northern Ireland and Australia are on joint second with 12 points from four matches followed by Pakistan, Qatar (five) and Poland (five).

Pakistan’s best chance would be to make a clean sweep against Northern Ireland and take their points-tally to 14 and hope that Australia lose 4-1 or 3-2 against group leaders Wales.

With that, Australia would finish with a maximum of 13 or 14 points while Pakistan will have 14 too but will pip the Kangaroos on a head-to-head basis as they had earlier defeated them 3-2.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2015.

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