KARACHI: In a final contest consisting of both teams from Pakistan, Babar Masih and Mohammad Asif went on to claim the IBSF World Team Snooker Championship in Hurghada, Egypt on Thursday.
Both the Pakistani teams played brilliantly throughout the tournament, eventually reaching the final where the Pakistan 2 team defeated the Pakistan 1 team comprising of Asjad Iqbal and Moahmmad Sajjad.
Both the pairs from Pakistan displayed brilliant control with the cue and played perfect snooker. Pakistan 2 won the first two frames convincingly 76-08 and 74-34.
It was a hard fought contest and the Pakistan 1 team came back and reduced the deficit, winning the frame by playing a break of 60. The deficit was back as before when the duo of Asif and Babar won the next frame 78-52.
To make matters more interesting, the Pakistan 1 team came back stronger than before, winning the next two frames with scores of 52-31 and 53-02, respectively to make it 3-all.
Pakistan 2 took the lead once again by winning the 7th frame 46-44, but the game was leveled once again with Pakistan 1 winning the 8th frame 68-13.
The final of best of nine frames saw supremacy of Babar Masih and Mohammad Asif as they won it 70-29 to complete the win with overall score of 76-08(50), 74-34, 26-70(60), 78-52, 31-52, 02-53, 46-44, 13-68, 70-29.
With this win, Pakistan now has 2 world team titles. In 2013, a team comprising Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sajjad had won the title for country.
Apart from this title win, Pakistan has also won Asian 6 Reds and World U18 Snooker Championship in a span of 4 months.