KARACHI: Former national champion Saleh Mohammad, who migrated to his home country Afghanistan over a decade back, fought back twice before turning the tables on incumbent national champion Mohammad Asif 4-2 in the 34th Asian Snooker Champ­ionship at Tabriz, Iran, on Monday, According to results made available here.

Drawn in group C, Asif, who won the opening fixture against Qatar’s Abdul Mohsin 4-1 on Sunday, had a brisk start and with the help of a half-century break of 54, won the first frame 94-12.

The lead was short lived as he conceded the next frame 38-63. Asif again surged 2-1 by taking the third frame 66-60 only to lose the fourth 40-72 as Saleh drew level.

Saleh, 45, who became the first Afghan to win the Asian amateur snooker title in Karachi five years back and a former world No 2, didn’t allow any room to his opponent by taking the next two frames and the match.

A splendid break of 84 lifted Saleh to win the fifth frame 88-8 and the sixth 58-2.

Asif’s team partner Babar Masih also suffered first loss as he went down 2-4 to Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh in group B.

Babar’s 2-0 lead punctuated with the breaks of 64 and 98 went in vain as the 33-year-old Iranian, who annexed a silver medal at the IBSF world snooker championship last year, bounced back to win the next four frames in a row 77-0, 60-59, 59-44, 87-0. The triumph includes efficient breaks of 77 and 87 in the third and sixth frames respectively.

Former national champion Mohammad Bilal, who is placed in group A, is the only Pakistani cueists having won both his encounters.

Bilal, who scored a crushing 4-0 victory over Iraq’s Muneeb Al-Juboori in the first match, continued his winning spree by getting the better of India’s Sahabaaz Adil Khan 4-1 (65-35, 65-26, 44-67, 97-1, 91-28) in the next fixture on Sunday evening.

Youthful Mohammad Majid Ali, struggled to beat Iran’s Hamed Zare­hdoost in the fully stretched battle 4-3 the scores being 6-76, 30-101, 0-124, 54-16, 66-31, 61-2, 70-29 to open his account Sunday eve­ning. Earlier, he had lost the open­ing group D tie to Iraqi cueist straight.

Results: Saleh Mohammadi (Afghanistan) bt Mohammad Asif 4-2 (12-94, 63-38, 60-66, 72-40, 88-8, 58-2); Amir Sarkhosh (Iran) bt Babar Masih 4-2 (0-101, 0-98, 77-0, 60-59, 59-44, 87-0).

Sunday’s remaining results: Mohammad Bilal bt Sahabaaz Adil Khan (India) 4-1 (65-35, 65-26, 44-67, 97-1, 91-28); Babar Masih bt Manan Chandra (India) 4-2 (53-65, 67-2, 78-44, 36-65, 93-28, 68-14); Mohammad Majid Ali bt Hamed Zarehdoost (Iran) 4-3 (6-76, 30-101, 0-124, 54-16, 66-31, 61-2, 70-29).

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2018