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Langnese Ranking Snooker Cup: Asif, Majid to face off in mouth-watering clash

Former world champion faces 21-year-old in final on Thursday.

Our Correspondent November 05, 2015

Asif, who won the 7th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship last month, has an opportunity to increase his win tally to improve his confidence for the IBSF World Championship later this month. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Former IBSF World Champion Mohammad Asif will face youngster Mohammad Majid Ali in the final of the Langnese Ranking Snooker Cup after both progressed from their respective semi-final matches on Wednesday at the Movenpick Hotel in Karachi.

Asif, who won the 7th NBP Ranking Snooker Championship last month, has an opportunity to increase his win tally for the year to boost his morale as he prepares to take part in the IBSF World Championship this month along with Mohammad Sajjad, Shahram Changezi and Abdul Sattar.

While Asif may have enjoyed a relatively easy 6-3 win over Mohammad Bilal in the semi-final, he is expecting a tougher challenge from Majid and believes that the youngster has the potential to challenge for the title.

“Majid is naturally gifted player so I think it will be a good final and he might spring a few surprises,” Asif told The Express Tribune. “However, my confidence is high after already bagging one title [NBP] and being in contention for another. I will definitely try to win and go into the IBSF World Championship on a winning note.”

Meanwhile Bilal, who had knocked out Mohammad Sajjad on his way to the last-four, got off to a good start by winning the first frame to pile pressure on Asif.

However, unlike Sajjad, Asif did not allow Bilal to dictate the tempo of the match and soon changed the complexion of the game by winning two frames on the trot to make it 2-1. Bilal managed to draw parity by winning the fourth frame before Asif restored his one-frame lead.

Once again, Bilal came from behind to make it 3-3 but that was as far as he could go as Asif asserted his title credentials by winning three consecutive frames to win by a scoreline of 55-58, 61-25, 75-69 (62), 49-70, 93-07 (92), 02-69, 103-10 (96), 59-46 and 69-07.

Meanwhile in the other semi-final, Majid overcame Babar Masih in a close encounter, managing to triumph 6-4 with overall scores of 78-49 (70), 53-70, 63-37, 70-42, 15-90, 21-82 (51), 73-33 (58), 80-19, 44-54 and 73-48.

The final would be contested on Thursday.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2015.

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