3rd SAARC Snooker Championship: Thaha and Asif storm into final

By M. Shamil Amit

Sri Lanka’s Ishrath Thaha and Pakistan’s Muhammad Asif entered the final of the 3rd SAARC Snooker Championship by chalking thrilling wins in the two semi-finals played at the Moors SC billiards table in Colombo yesterday evening.

The two cueists came out winners by the identical winning margin of five frames to three in the nine-frame encounter. Both underwent some anxious moments with Thaha racing to victory with two breaks of 66 in the seventh and eight frames in his win against Ankit Man of Nepal who beat Sri Lanka’s Susantha Boteju 4-3 in the seven-frame quarter-final clash in the morning.

Asif, the reigning world snooker champion, too did not have it easy against his compatriot Muhammad Naseem Akhter. In a ding-dong battle, the two shared honours but Asif kept up his lead but was given a shocker by Akhtar who made a break of 102 in the seventh frame but Asif sealed the game with a comfortable eighth frame win
Thaha, Asif and Akhtar ended the round robin matches with an unbeaten record by winning all the three matches that they played but Thaha and Asif made it to the semi-finals by virtue of having a better record of frame wins while Akhtar had to fight out for the semi slot with a quarter-final clash against Kamal Chawla of India.

The final will be played over nine frames today from 3.00 p.m. 

Results:

Irshath Thaha (Sri Lanka) beat Kamal Chawla (India) 4-0 (61/10, 78/43, 75/72, 67/17), Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Paksitan) beat Paras Gupta (India) 4-2 (78/20, 15/75, 90/5, 65/42, 23/85, 55/52), Muhammad Asif (Pakistan) beat Ankit Man (Nepal) 4-1 (82/9, 25/63, 77/15, 84/30, 60/10);
Quarter Finals – Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Pakistan) beat Kamal Chawla (India) 4-2 (69/17, 16/61, 95/1, 32/65, 72/13, 66/16), Ankit Man (Nepal) beat Susantha Boteju (Sri Lanka) 4-3 (76/42, 26/81, 73/57, 23/49, 26/67, 81/37, 46/42);
Semi Finals – Ishrath Thaha (Sri Lanka) beat Ankit Man (Nepal) 5-3 (86/50, 56/69, 0/88, 97/23, 73/24, 27/65, 82/9, 112/5), Muhammad Asif (Pakistan) beat Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Pakistan) 5-3 (21.60, 53/30, 76/50, 37/91, 81/49, 59/22, 0/131, 72/15).