National Ranking Championship: Shahid Aftab hits highest break of 135

Cueist recovers from 4-2 down to beat Sharjeel 5-3 in last-16

KARACHI: Shahid Aftab rallied from 4-2 down to beat Sharjeel Mehmood 5-4 in the last-16 stage of the ongoing 7th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship, hitting the highest break (135) of the event in the process at the NBP Sports Complex in Karachi.

Faced with the very real possibility of being knocked out of the competition, Shahid lifted his game and sealed the win in style by hitting a 135-point break in the decider as he won with scores of 25-57, 65-62, 92-01, 19-71, 45-75, 15-56, 58-19, 69-14, 135-0 (135).

In other matches, Mohammad Sajjad thrashed Ian Mark John 5-1, while Imran Shahzad also won with a similar scoreline — albeit against a tougher opponent in Muhammad Asif Toba — to progress to the last-eight.

Meanwhile, youngster Mohammad Faheem stunned seasoned campaigner Khurram Agha with a 5-3 win.

Faheem threatened to build a significant lead as he initially went 2-0 up and then led 3-1, but Agha kept coming back and eventually made it 3-3. However, the youngster held his nerve and won 53-40, 83-30, 28-67, 57-14, 47-56, 30-80, 65-22, 58-51.

Former IBSF World Champion Mohammad Asif beat Shah Khan 5-2, while Abu Saim also registered a 5-2 victory over Bahadur Khan.

In other matches, Muhammad Bilal staged a strong comeback to triumph 5-3 against Sultan Mehmood despite trailing 3-2 at one stage.

There were a couple of close frames between the two cueists but Bilal managed to walk away as the winner with scores of 51-69, 71-45, 0-80, 71-54, 54-76, 79-20, 57-11, 57-23 as Abdul Sattar defeated Rambail Gul 5-3.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2015.

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