The Indian amateur made two late birdies to secure the title by two shots over Rupak Acharya. Saini shot a round of one-under 71, which took his tournament total to 11-under 277. [break]
Nepali pro Acharya made a bold charge but fell agonizingly short and despite holding the lead briefly in the final round, his last-round score of three-under 69 could only take his tournament total to nine-under 279.
Sri Lankan amateur Mithun Perera finished third at two-under 286. Bangladesh´s Md Milon Ahmed finished ahead of Shiva Ram Shrestha in fourth place after the big-hitting local made a double bogey on the final hole to drop down the leaderboard to fifth place.
But despite finishing second, Rupak Acharya took home the winner´s check of Rs 486,000 as Saini, being an amateur, is not eligible to receive the prize money. Saini, however, took home the country championship trophy for being the leading amateur in the field.
Starting the day four shots in front of Acharya, the youngster from Punjab hardly showed any sign of nerves as he reeled off five straight pars. With the others in the leaderboard also not making any move, the leader seemed comfortably placed with a handy lead. But in a little less than 20 minutes, all that changed.
Teeing off on the sixth, Saini´s drive nestled next to the base of a tree, just off the fairway. Having to chip out from there, he could not prevent the loss of a shot, making his first bogey of the round. Right on cue, Acharya stepped up to his putt and rolled in a 15-footer for his first birdie that saw the lead being cut down by half.
If the alarm bells were ringing, then there was more drama on the next hole as Saini found the water on the par-5 seventh with his second shot. His second straight bogey was followed by Acharya´s second straight birdie and all of a sudden, the two were level at eight-under for the tournament.
Just when it looked like nerves found a prominent place in Saini´s game, it was Rupak who made a bogey on the next hole but he corrected the error on the par-3 10th. Both players added a birdie each on the 11th. For the first time, since halfway through the third round, Acharya took the lead on his own with a good birdie putt on the par-4 14th.
With the local fans cheering Acharya on, Saini needed to dig in to fashion a bold comeback and he managed that in style. A long, curling, birdie putt on the par-3 16th saw him draw level with the leader and another long putt from the lower tier on the green to the upper tier where the pin was placed on the 17th helped him regain the lead.
With Rupak finding trouble on the last hole and Ashbeer safely on the green in two, the young lad safely made two putts to capture his first title outside of the junior circuit.
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