AKIL Akberali and Khuzema Murtaza booked their place in the second round of ongoing Cargostars Dar Open Snooker tournament at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (DGC) on Thursday evening.

Hosts Akberali, the finalist of 2010 ousted Abdulkadir Dossaje of Annadil Burhani by straight-forward 2-0 victory. But in another Thursday's scheduled fixture, Siten Borkhataria went through without hitting the ball, after his opponent Ramesh Lathigra failed to turn up for the all DGC-tie.

Akberali started the Group C game slowly at the evening before he gained momentum later on to lead by 33- 17 points. Although his opponent tricked him to four penalty points, he went on to take the first frame by 41-17.

In the second set things were different as Akberali comfortably controlled the game to take a 37-24 lead at some point and his fine form helped him to win it by 54-32. Akberali who was happy to count his first win said: "It was a very good and nice game. It's the first time I played against him that is why I played cautiously. I started with a slow pace because I had to learn his game plans.

He has now set sight on the coming match but his target is to reach at lest the semi-finals for the second consecutive time. In another match, Murtaza from Annadil Burhani overcame a stiff challenge from host veteran Kishore Ramanuj to go through by 2-1 frame victory.

Ramanuj started the game strongly to take the first frame. He led by 49-30 before he went on to take it by 51-31. But the veteran of DGC was frustrated in the end after his opponent came from behind to take the other two frames in the best of three frame match.

Murtaza ultimately won the match 2-1 after showing great resilience to fight back from a substantial deficit in the deciding frame against one of the most experienced players in the tournament. The joyful Murtaza told the 'Daily News on Saturday' that: "On behalf of Annadil Burhani players, I want to thank DGC for inviting us to play this tournament. "For many years now we came to participate and the hospitality is very good," he said.