'Would you believe that?' - Mark Selby drops rest on brown in 'extraordinary' gaffe at Northern Ireland Open

Updated 15/10/2021 at 11:22 GMT

Trailing Cao 52-53 in the sixth frame with a 3-2 lead, Selby simply appeared to let the rest slip from his grasp as he prepared to take on a long pot on the green down the far cushion. The brown inadvertently squirted away across the table. The Leicester man could only laugh and shake his head as he conceded a foul to his opponent and squandered the opportunity to take on the green at all.

'Would you believe that?' - Selby drops rest on brown in 'extraordinary' gaffe

Mark Selby somehow contrived to drop the rest on the brown ball in what was an "extraordinary" gaffe during his first-round match.

Selby survived a huge scare as Cao Yupeng missed the final black of the match and squandered the chance to beat the world No. 1 in a highly dramatic opening clash at the Northern Ireland Open.

The reigning world champion was 2-1 and 3-2 up against Cao, but the Chinese player missed the crucial last black along the cushion to give Selby an easy pot for victory.

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Prior to the drama on the final black, there was an astonishing moment when Selby dropped the rest on the brown ball in a very uncharacteristic blunder.

Trailing Cao 52-53 in the sixth frame with a 3-2 lead, Selby simply appeared to let the rest slip from his grasp as he prepared to take on a long pot on the green down the far cushion. The brown inadvertently squirted away across the table.

The Leicester man could only laugh and shake his head as he conceded a foul to his opponent and squandered the opportunity to take on the green at all.

'It was all or nothing!' - Cao misses final black to hand Selby victory

"Oh, goodness me!" exclaimed Eurosport commentator Philip Studd.

"Would you believe that?! Ever more dramatic, this sixth frame. Selby can smile at it at least."

Eurosport expert Neal Foulds added: "That's not something you see all the time!

Extraordinary, wasn't it! The ball goes flying across the table for no reason.

Earlier in the match, Selby found himself in a lot of trouble when 61-25 up in the second frame as Cao grabbed an opportunity to slide the cue ball in behind the black with the lone remaining red stranded up the table.

'Selby is getting a taste of his own medicine' - Star escapes torrid snooker

Fortunately for the Leicester man, he was able to get out of the snooker perfectly with a precise shot off two cushions before making contact with the cue ball, which duly rolled up to baulk.

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Stream the Northern Ireland Open live and on demand on discovery+, the Eurosport app and eurosport.com.

Northern Ireland Open