Bingham and his opponent Mark Selby played out sessions two and three of their semi-final and the all English contest proved a fascinating mix of big breaks and tactical battles at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

Starting the day at 4-4, 2015 world champion Bingham pinched the first frame of the day with a 62 clearance to strike the front.

In a nip and tuck contest, Selby grabbed the momentum after the mid-session interval firing in consecutive scores of 134 as he lead 8-6.

Bingham replied with a century of his own making a 127 to halve the deficit, before Selby took the last of the session to lead 9-7 heading into the evening’s play.

Bingham started session three of the match on the front foot with breaks of 131 and 96 drawing him level at 9-9.

From there, the pace of play slowed considerably as the action turned tactical with frame 19 the longest of the championship so far at 63 minutes.

Bingham clinched it on the final black to strike the lead and won a total of five straight frames during that run which gave him a 12-9 advantage.

Three-time world champion Selby then battled back to one behind before the final frame of the session proved another marathon at 53 minutes, which included a pause to allow the players to have a comfort break.

Bingham eventually claimed the frame at 11.40pm local time thanks to a break of 63 to take a two frame lead into the final session, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, at 13-11.

The other semi-final, another all English affair between last year’s runner-up Kyren Wilson and 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy played its second of four scheduled sessions today.

Wilson led 6-2 following session one and took the first frame of the day to open up a five frame advantage before Murphy won the next after his opponent conceded 53 points in fouls after being snookered behind the blue.

Breaks of 60 and 131 helped Wilson open up a commanding advantage at 10-4 before Murphy won the last two frames of the session.

The final frame saw Murphy produce an 86 clearance after Wilson lost position on 46 and Murphy’s reaction of raising his fist to the crowd at the end suggested he believes he can still turn the contest around.

Wilson leads 10-6 with the pair scheduled to play the third and fourth sessions of their contest tomorrow morning and evening respectively.