Saif, Abdulmajeed lead Qatar to last-16
DOHA, March 1, 2018-Ahmed Saif and Bashar Abdulmajeed kept the local hopes alive in the IBSF-ACBS World Team Cup 2018 as the Qatar-1 team made it to the last-16 stage of the inaugural edition of the tournament at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation (QBSF) Hall yesterday.
The duo started the day with a dominant 3-0 win over South Africa's Peter Francisco and Mohamed Faaris Kahn, before losing out 2-3 to Malaysia's Keen Hoo Moh and Kok Leong Lim in the evening.
However, with South Africa's 3-1 win over Malaysia on the first day of the tournament on Tuesday, Qatar-1 topped Group H and made it to the knockout stages along with South Africa over better frame difference.
In the first match of the day yesterday, Saif opened the proceedings against 56-year-old veteran Francisco and won the first frame 68-9, while Abdulmajeed took the second frame 90-16 against Kahn. Abdulmajeed then stitched together a 60-point break in the doubles frame to win it 74-1.
In the evening session, the 35-year-old Saif won the first frame 69-31 against Keen before Kok levelled the game 75-66, and then the Malaysians took the doubles 67-22.
Saif restored parity with a 60-26 win in the fourth frame, but Keen's 62-point break gave Abdulmajeed no chance in the deciding frame.
In today's last-16 match, the duo is up against the current world champions, Pakistan's Mohamed Asif and Babar Masih. Pakistan 2 team, comprising Asjad Iqbal and Mohamed Sajjad were unbeaten in the group stages, winning both their matches, and were ranked second behind Ireland-1 (Brendan O'Donoghue and Michael Judge).
On Tuesday, the duo had beaten India-2 team of Pankaj Advani and Manan Chandra, before following it up with 3-0 win over Polish team of Mateusz Baranowski and Grzegorz Biernadski.
The Polish duo then lost 1-3 against India-2 to hand the latter a passage through to the last 16. Advani-Chandra combine will face Chinese teenagers Zhang Jianjang and Fan Zhengyi in the next round.
India-1, comprising Shahbaaz Adil Khan and Malkeet Singh, were also among six teams — Iran, Russia and Hong Kong-1 being the other — that stayed unbeaten in the group stages and were ranked third going into the knockouts.
India-1 will now face the Australian team of Steve Mifsud and Ryan Thomerson in the first round of the knockouts today. Qatar-2 team of Mohsen Bukshaisha and Mhanaa al-Obaidli were edged out of the knockout spot in a thriller by Hong Kong-1, comprising Lee Chun Wai and Fung Kwok Wai.
Bukshaisha opened the game with a 53-point break taking the first frame 64-39, however, Fung replied with a 65-point break in the second frame, blanking al-Obaidli 77-0.
After the Hong Kong duo won the doubles frame, al-Obaidli managed to level the match at 2-2 with a single-point victory in the fourth frame.
However, Fung closed out the game at 72-6 to stay unbeaten, and set up a last-16 encounter with Isle of Man's Darryl Hill and Sean Corkish.
Russian teenagers Ivan Kakovskii and Mikhail Terekhov will take on Iceland's Gunnar Hreidarsson and Gudni Palsson in the knockouts, while Iran's Amir Sarkhosh and Ehsan Heydari Nezhad will take on Egyptian duo of Hesham Shawky and Wael Talaat.
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