BBC commentator Dennis Taylor questioned Hossein Vafaei's "emotional" reaction during the snooker star's victory over Barry Hawkins. Vafaei narrowly edged a thriller against the former runner-up, progressing into the second round with a 10-9 win.

Vafaei, who has never progressed beyond the second round of the World Championship, didn't lead the contest at all until the final frame of the match. The Iranian and Hawkins shared a whopping 18 frames between them, with .

But it was a moment during the 19th frame that raised eyebrows inside the Crucible's commentary box, when Vafaei let out a large cheer of: "Come on!" after sinking a red ball to give him a break of 50. A little bemused by the outburst, commentator Taylor questioned whether the world No.24 had gone too early with his celebrations.

Speaking during the BBC's coverage, he stated: "Oh, that's a little bit premature. I know he does get emotional, but he isn't over the line just yet." Vafaei did go on to win the frame, and by extension, the match, to secure his spot in the second round of the World Championship.

Unsurprisingly, the motive behind the exclamation was put to him during the post-match debrief, with Vafaei replying: "In that moment my mind went negative, so I had to turn something around to tell myself, I had to let something go and let my animal come out again. That was a little treat to my mind. Don't stop me please! Let me go! Let me please go! When you get close to over the line, this is the way people make mistakes."

Vafaei even explained his side of things to opponent Hawkins after the match, explaining to the Englishman that the shouting wasn't personal. He added: "[I told him] 'This is nothing about you, mate. I couldn't handle it, I was under lots of pressure.'

"All the way I was down. 1-0, until 8-7 until 9-8 I was all the way down, so what can I do? Up, down, up, down. I did it 10 times. I had to show some emotion otherwise I'm not human. I am human! I had to show some emotion to the people, to the fans. It's going to be boring [otherwise], people want to see this."

Vafaei will take on Mark Williams at the next stage, after the Welshman came through Wu Yize to book his spot in round two.