‘So boring’ – Mark Selby and Mark Allen share joke during safety battle in World Snooker Championship semi-final

With the pair trading the opening two frames, tough snooker was the order of the day with neither player prepared to back down.

With a red near the bottom-right pocket, the priority was to hide it from the opponent.

A cluster of balls were between cue ball and object ball when a red found its way into the left cushion. It appeared a safe place, and the white found its way there.

What was to follow was a game of chicken as both feathered the white in order to not give the upper hand to the other.

Selby fouled on two occasions, which was a better option than to be too heavy-handed and gift an opening.

As the exchange continued, Selby drew laughter from the crowd by saying: “So boring.”

Quick as a flash, Allen fired back: “We have three more days of this.”

It was a light moment to puncture an extremely tense passage of play.

Selby is the safety king, but he blinked first by sending the white into a different area of the table and it did not pay off as a short while later Allen picked off a break of 66 to edge an epic third frame.

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