A pair of cueists from Punjab Imran Shehzad and Muhammad Asif and Sind's Abdul Sattar and Sohail Shehzad advanced in the semi-finals of third NBP National Ranking Snooker Championship after hard fought victories at Amir Bakhsh Billiards Hall of Karachi Club on Sunday.
Former National champions Imran Shehzad and Abdul Sattar were taken to limits before chalking exciting 5-4 victories.
Lahore-based Imran recovered from 1-2 down to overcome veteran Naveen Perwani in a tense quarterfinal.
After losing the first and third frame, Imran came strongly with a break 6-76 in the fourth frame. However Naveen pulled the next two frames to gain 4-2 lead. Imran showed his class in a crunch situation and potting multicoloured ball smartly. Imran made the break of 53 and 35 in 7th frame and won the match with a two superb breaks of 56 and 53 in the decider.
Fighting Abdul Sattar came from 2-4 defict to topple Muhammad Imran of Punjab in a thrilling finish. Sattar demonstrated remarkable game under pressure and won the last three frames in a row to claw his way back from brink of defeat to notch-up a thrilling victory.
Another former National Champion Muhammad Asif from Faisalabad fought back from 1-2 down to overpower talented Omair Alam of Sindh. Asif's win included two fine breaks of 75 and 70 in 6th and 7th frame. Lanky Sindh cueist Sohail Shehzad dropped three frames before defeating his province-mate Sultan Muhammad 5-3.