IN AN astonishingly well-fought semi-finals of the 15 Red Snooker Championship in progress at Shabbi’s Q Sports Sadar, Waqar Sheikh pipped Tushar Mankar 3-2 on Wednesday to book a final date with Chaitanya Dixit. Sheikh displayed form and composure in the colour balls game to ultimately steal the thriller 16-43, 49-41, 63-34, 18-57, 41-30. Dixit had defeated Pranay Shete in the first semis on Tuesday. With proactive performance Mankar did not give any chance to the opponent and pocketed first frame. In the second frame, Sheikh made sure to maintain the score close to his rival and grabbed the opportunity on the black ball to level it at one all.

 

Mankar tried his best in the third frame until the break but Sheikh accumulated 28 points to restore the lead winning the third frame. Everything worked out well for Mankar as he snatched the fourth frame keeping up with stability and focus to take the match into the decider. In a nail biting finish, both players came up with their best but Sheikh got fortunate as he got a chance to pocket the colour balls including a pounding blue to the long making a nice position for pink to enter the final. Final, to be played on Thursday starting at 03.00 pm, will be a best of 7 frames affair.