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Iran, United Arab Emirates, India and Afghanistan were the four teams that made it to the semi-finals of the Asian Snooker Team Championships at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation facility here yesterday. |
Yesterday morning, Qatar A were blanked in their last round robin match against India before getting paired with them again for the quarterfinals.
In the last eight, the team, which comprises of Qatar’s first professional snooker player Ahmed Saif, Bashar Hussain and Mosen Bukhshaisha, lost to India 1-3 bowing out of the tournament.
The Indian team, which is made up of Manan Chandra, Alok Kumar and Brijesh Damani, will be against a strong Afghanistan team in the semi-finals today.
While Chandra and Kumar were part of the bronze-winning team in the 2007 Asian Indoor Games, Chandra and Damani won gold, along with Aditya Mehta, in the team event at 2009 Asian Indoor Games. Kumar won his fifth National Billiards title in February this year and is the first player to win both Asian Billiards and Snooker titles.
Qatar B, comprising of Obaidly brothers — Khamis, Mohanna and Ali — managed to win a consolation match in the tournament, beating Jordan 3-1 in their last round robin match yesterday. Qatar’s second team was blanked on the first day by Thailand and Afghanistan, ousting them from the tournament.
Afghanistan has remained unbeaten so far, winning their last round robin match against Thailand in the morning before they downed Pakistan 3-1 in the quarter-final. For Pakistan, Mohammad Asif, a veteran who won the Asian 6-Red title a few days ago, teamed up with a young duo of Hamza Akbar, the Pakistani national champion, and Mohamed Majid Ali, who recently became the Asian Junior No 2.
While the team impressed on day one of the team championships, the Pakistani trio did not get a chance against Iran in the last round robin match, getting blanked. The Asian 6-Red finalist from Iran, Amir Sarkhosh, is part of the team which also downed China 3-1 in the quarter-finals yesterday evening.
In the other matches of the day, United Arab Emirates (UAE) lost to Mongolia 2-3 in the last round robin match but had already qualified having posted two wins — against China and Iraq — on the inaugural day.
In their quarter-final match against Thailand, they won 3-1 to set-up a semifinal clash with Iran.
Today, the semi-finals will be played at 10am while the final will be played at 4pm.
