World Snooker Championship: Stuart Bingham fights back to lead Mark Selby, Wilson heads Murphy

Stuart Bingham produced a string of big breaks to turn his World Championship semi-final with Mark Selby on its head.

Bingham, trailing 9-7 after Friday’s morning session, played almost flawless snooker to win five successive frames with breaks of 131, 96, 78 and 68.

Selby dug in to take the next two but a 63 break earned Bingham a 13-11 overnight lead going into Saturday’s final session at 14:30 BST.

Kyren Wilson leads Shaun Murphy 10-6 in the other best-of-33 semi-final.

Wilson, 29, maintained his four-frame advantage during Friday’s afternoon session but Murphy produced an important late rally to keep himself in touch.

Last year’s losing finalist Wilson shook off the blow of losing a bizarre frame in which he conceded 53 penalty points to stretch his overnight 6-2 lead to 10-4 with a top run of 131.

But Murphy, 38, took the last two to close to 10-6, aided by breaks of 59 and a clearance of 86, to revive his hopes going into their final two sessions on Saturday (10:00 & 19:00 BST).

Bingham gets the better of steely Selby

Bingham began the evening session in blistering fashion, hitting a 131 clearance in the opening frame to halve his deficit before missing the 13th red on a maximum attempt as he levelled matters with a 96.

The following frame, at 63 minutes the longest in the tournament, proved pivotal as Selby broke down on 52 and Bingham nudged ahead, pinching it on the black after an outrageous fluke on the final pink.

The 2015 champion, nicknamed ‘Ballrun’ by his peers on the circuit because of his perceived run of the ball, took full advantage of his good fortune with decisive contributions of 78 and 68 to move 12-9 ahead.

However, Selby stretched out the 21st frame by playing for snookers for almost 20 minutes and that, combined with two re-racks at the outset of the following frame, appeared to disrupt Bingham’s rhythm.

Three-time champion Selby, 37, won that frame and the next to pull back within one thanks to runs of 62 and 51 but Bingham eventually sealed a lengthy final frame of the evening not long before midnight.

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  World Snooker Championship: Stuart Bingham fights back to lead Mark Selby, Wilson heads Murphy