Mark Selby fights off Hammad Miah in scrappy match to reach the last 16 of Northern Ireland Open

Mark Selby left Hammad Miah extremely frustrated in a scrappy contest as he took a 4-2 victory to reach the last 16 at the Northern Ireland Open. Miah had chances to win every frame, but couldn’t take them and was punished for his mistakes which meant he was 3-0 down after losing two frames on the final black. Ad He fought back to 3-2, but lost the next frame to Selby, who will play Michael White in the next round on Thursday.

Northern Ireland Open'Are you John Higgins in disguise?'AN HOUR AGO Miah was looking good to win the opening frame with a 54-point lead, but Selby got back in after some safety errors from his opponent. The second frame was also scrappy, except this time Selby found himself needing a snooker. He got it straight away by rolling up behind the brown, with Miah needing to hit the green which he missed.

Then Selby cleared the remaining colours with some excellent shots on the green, brown and black to steal the frame. Remarkably, Miah could have won the next frame too as he was behind, but was on a good break of 43 and just needed the final pink. However, he made it difficult with poor positioning off the blue so missed the pink, leaving Selby to take the frame on the black again.

Miah was in first in the fourth frame before he missed a routine red having made a break of 36. It looked like Selby was going to steal the frame, but he missed the final red with the rest which Miah punished by clearing the table. The mistakes continued from both players in the fifth, with Miah coming out on top in a frame that lasted nearly 40 minutes.