Abu Dhabi: Iran’s Soheil Vahedi emerged as the star as he single-handedly took Iran to the Asian Snooker Championships team title pair, along with Amir Sarkosh, after stunning firm favourites India led by Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta 3-2 at the Novotel Hotel on Thursday.
Vahedi was instrumental in winning both his singles and doubles outing after his compatriot had lost both his frames.
“Obviously to win the title against India gives you a very good feeling. I would say I enjoyed it. It was a pressure and to play against Pankaj and win was exceptional. I had played him once last year in Malaysia and he had won on the last black,” said a jubilant Vahedi, who was richer by $6,750 (Dh24,792).
Advani said: “It is a very short format and very unpredictable. They were on the offensive and that worked for them. I wouldn’t say we played badly but we didn’t capitalise on the chances they got. Some of the shots he tried, we would never go because the percentage of getting those shots in is very low.”
The Team Asian Snooker Championship couldn’t have concluded without a lot of drama. Both India and Iran had made it to the finals with one-sided affairs. However, the summit clash went down to the wire with Iran rallying from a frame down to pile on the pressure on India with two back-to-back victories.
India’s National No. 1 Aditya Mehta took an early lead by winning the first frame against Iran’s Amir Sarkosh 65-53. However, what happened next was least expected as India’s ace cueist and recently crowned 6 Red Champion Advani was shocked by Soheil Vahedi in the second frame by 7-54.
That victory was a huge shot in the arm for the Iranians and they went on to stun the Indian pair in the team contest 77-1.
The pressure was now on Advani and Mehta to win both their singles against Sarkhosh and Vahedi, respectively.
Battling to keep the title aspirations alive, Advani stayed neck and neck with Sarkosh till 19-21. But then Sarkosh took a five-points edge. However, one mis-hit was enough for Advani to claw his way back into the game.
He took 23 points in a row to take a 43-25 lead and then used the safety to perfection. However, again the 2003 IBSF World Championship winner erred, allowing Sarkosh to script a remarkable comeback.
Sarkosh scored 22 points on the trot to swing the tide back in his favour (55-47). With only colour balls remaining, it was 27 points up for grabs with Iran in the lead by eight points. It was now left to that one clear break to end the frame. Like a pendulum, the contest swung from one end to the other with Sarkosh clearly having the edge at 64-51.
However, he missed out on potting an easy brown and that was enough for Adani to finish the contest at 69-64.
With the frames now tied at 2-2, the title decider was the contest between Mehta and Vahedi. Coming into the game on the back of his success over Advani, Vahedi immediately took a 7-1 lead. Mehta then took the upper hand by pocketing 16 points. Vahedi fought back to seize the lead at 34-24 and then scored 21 point in one go to make it 55-24. He then swelled it to 62-36 to eventually seal the match and the title at 74-40.