Karachi: India overcame a gritty Pakistani fightback to win the Lawrencepur (Peace Cup) Snooker Challenge 39-38, but not before the event went to the wire at the Karachi Club here Saturday.

Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf, in the last lucky seven singles against Manan Chandra, required a victory with a half-century break to force a sudden-death.

But the 1993 world champion and 14-time former national champion could only manage a 64-41 victory.

Pakistan appeared dead and buried when they started the final day’s play trailing 20-31 with a minimum of 17 points up for grabs. But they got a lifeline in the fourth match of the day when surprise package Imran Shahzad not only defeated Manan Chandra 20-58, 73-20, 114-10, but also conjured up the maiden century break of the series to reduce India’s lead to 35-30.

Mohammad Yousuf, in the fifth match, then recovered to beat Asian champion Alok Kumar 8-131, 76-35, 60-45 after the bespectacled Indian cueist had started briskly by notching up breaks of 74 and 57 in the first frame.

Yousuf replied with a break of 52 in the second frame as both the players contributed three points each to their teams cause.

Pakistan captain Naveen Perwani kept Pakistan’s hopes alive when in the penultimate three-frame singles match he defeated Devendra Joshi 81-13, 72-48, 33-61 to further trim India’s lead to 39-35.

In the final match of the tournament, Chandra played safe as he seemed determined not to allow Pakistan to stretch it to the sudden death.

Yousuf’s over-ambitious approach also let him down when he struggled for cue ball control and missed a couple of opportunities to build up big breaks.

“I am happy for the way we fought back in the series. By all means, it was not a one-way traffic as it looked when play ended the other day,” Pakistan captain Naveen Perwani said.

Earlier, India started on a winning note when the combination of Joshi and world billiards champion Pankaj Advani defeated Yousuf and Shahzad 59-58 on the black ball.

The Indian team had also won the series when it hosted it last year. (PTI)