KARACHI: Third seed Mohammad Bilal and unseeded Sohail Shehzad broke the jinx when they qualified to meet each other in the final of the Jubilee Insurance 41st National Snooker Championship at hotel Movenpick Arcade on Friday.

Bilal overcame sixth seed Babar Masih in a gruelling semi-final 6-5 that saw two elegant century breaks by both the cueists while Sindh Cup champion Shehzad come out of the shadow of top seed Mohammad Asif registering an emphatic 6-2 victory in the other semi-final.

Bilal and Shehzad will be up against each other in a ranking final for the first time on Saturday. The best of 13 frames final start at 9am.

Bilal, who sent fourth seed Shahram Changezi packing 5-1 in the quarters the other day, fought tooth and nail from the word go to the decisive 11th frame to conquer his opponent the scores being 73-55, 47-77, 97-15, 74-9, 0-112, 47-59’ 22-77, 95-0, 116-4, 64-69, 100-28.

Bilal, who lost to Asif twice 0-6 and 3-6 in the semi-finals of the NBP and third ranking events last year, defied pressure of two breaks of 77 and 112 besides trailing 3-4 and tied five-all to post a magnificent victory.

Bilal geared up and replied with two solid breaks of 72 and 116 in the eighth and ninth frames to surge 5-4 in the match. But Babar, a losing quarter-finalist of the 40th nationals, drew level by taking the tenth frame only to lose the next and the match.

Shehzad, who has rich experience under his belt, was convincing while halting the impressive run of former IBSF champion Asif 6-2.

Asif, who has managed to regain top slot in the national ranking, by returning with flying colours in the two events last, was at the receiving end and could only win two frames.

Shehzad, whose has gone down in the rankings and has entered as a qualifier by winning the Sindh Cup, was impressive as he won 25-69, 67-6, 82-5, 84-47, 70-0, 14-74, 58-38, 64-14.

Results:

Semi-finals:

Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) bt Babar Masih (Punjab) 6-5 (73-55, 47-77, 97-15, 74-9, 0-112, 47-59’ 22-77, 95-0, 116-4, 64-69, 100-28); Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) bt Mohammad Asif (Punjab) 6-2 (25-69, 67-6, 82-5, 84-47, 70-0, 14-74, 58-38, 64-14).

Saturday’s fixtures:

Final: Mohammad Bilal (Punjab) v Sohail Shehzad (Sindh) at 9am (Best of 13 frames).

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2016