In a riveting battle at the 48th NBP National Snooker Championship, Asjad Iqbal of National Bank emerged victorious, claiming his first national title after defeating Punjab’s Awaisullah Munir 7-6 here at the NBP Sports Complex Snooker Arena.
The frame scores of the final were 5-80, 99-14, 64-45, 64-08, 18-69, 42-64, 55-75, 42-55, 67-00, 71-21, 77-18, 48-92 and 55-40.
Asjad’s victory marked the end of his 15-year pursuit of the national title. The championship concluded with the announcement by Pakistan Billiard and Snooker Association (PBSA) chairman Alamgir Anwar Shaikh that both the first and second-place winners would represent Pakistan in the Asian Championship in June later this year.
“This was the only feather missing in my cap on the domestic circuit but thankfully I have achieved that too,” said Asjad, who counts Scottish cuesit Stephen Hendry as his inspiration, while talking to media persons. “Now I will shift my complete focus towards Asian Championship and will try my best to bring laurels for my country.”
After an intense battle the match was tied at 6-6 and the final frame went to the wire as well. Asjad initially took the lead, but both players made crucial mistakes.
Awaisullah, who was playing his first final, had a chance to claim victory, but an imprecise shot on the brown ball allowed Asjad to capitalise.
The same brown ball which betrayed Awaisullah favoured Asjad as a fluke shot on brown hit the corner pocket but with a stroke of luck still went in the side pocket. The pot all but decided the match with the Sargodha-born Asjad sealing the title with a brilliant pot on the pink.
“You always need luck and some decisions in your favour to win championships,” the 30-year-old added. “At one point, I thought I was completely lost but I guess today after 15 years it was my day.”
In contrast, Awaisullah, the 2023 Punjab champion, said that he was really frustrated, for obvious reasons, when the brown ball went in. “There are fluke shots in almost every match but at the clutch moment it happened, that was just frustrating,” said the Lahore-born Awaisullah. “But these things happen.
