Manisha Billiards Championship: Mehta cruises, Advani stretched to distance

Abhishek Manroa January 31, 2012 0

Manisha Billiards Championship: Mehta cruises, Advani stretched to distance

PUNE: Defending champion Aditya Mehta made it look so easy, but four-time champion Pankaj Advani survived a scare against unheralded Rajat Khaneja of Chandigarh before winning in the deciding fifth frame in the league phase of the Manisha National Snooker championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here on Monday.

Mehta’s stint in England on the pro-Tour clearly reflected in his play as he took out Sumesh Turki without making any fuss in the 78th Manisha-National Billiards and Snooker championship being organised by the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra and the PYC Hindu Gymkahana.

Playing in Group A, Mehta took the first frame 84-28 and then came up with a break of 90 to take the second 90-0 before a break of 54 helped him to win the third frame 64-14. Sunil Kumar, Yogesh Sharma and Aneesh Saini are the other three cueists in the group with top two finishers at the end of the league phase from each of 16 groups will make it to the knockout draw of 32 players.

Advani Stretched

Playing in Group F after he finished No 6 at the last Nationals in Chennai, Advani was in a tricky situation before he wriggled out of it on his sheer experience. Playing against Rajat Khaneja, in the ‘best-of-five’ frame league match, Advani found himself 0-2 down as the Chandigarh cueist took the first two frames 75-10, 91-10 including a break of 65 in the second.

Advani was made to start afresh and he replied with panache. With a break of 88 in the third, Advani (88-8) bridged the gap to1-2 before to even the match by taking the fourth 60-25. In the decider though Advani was in his elements and once he got a favourable position, he went on to clean the table and take the frame 61-16 for a 3-2 win.

Also pushed to the limit was seasoned Maharashtra cueist Sarang Shroff, who, however, could not make a rally and lost against M Yogesh Kumar of Karnataka. Shroff was leading 2-0 after taking the first two frames 87-22, 71-32, but Yogesh rallied brilliantly and wrapped up the match by taking the next three 72-26, 62-31, 76-36.

In Group E, Railways’ Kamal Chawla, who finished No 3 in the World snooker championship last year, opened his campaign with a swift 80-22, 72-35, 110-7 win against Anuj Sharma of Goa, including a break of 61 in the third frame.

In the same group, local lad Anand Raghuvanshi defeated Kunal Manchanda of Rajasthan in straight frames 50-39, 61-11, 69-32. Anand, third year engineering student at the MIT College, who practices at Panchashil Club and recently trained under England’s Dell Hill, who had come down to Mumbai for a few days. The Pune player has been playing Nationals since 2008, but this is for the first time that he made it to the main draw of snooker event.

Results:

Gorup A: Aditya Mehta (PSPB) bt Sumesh Turki (J and K) 3-0 (84-28, 90 (90)-0, 64 (54)-14); Aneesh Saini (Har) bt Yogesh Sharma (Mah) 3-0 (61-29, 60-42, 78-64).

Group B: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Peter Lalrintluanga (Miz) 3-0 (61-6, 48-34, 55-2).

Group C: Bhadresh Panchal (Guj) bt Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) 3-1 (78-46, 38-59, 62-29, 70-6).

Group D: IH Manudev (Kar) bt Pratik Jain (MP) 3-0 (91-33, 82-14, 69-26); M Yogesh Kumar (Kar) bt Sarang Shroff (Mah) 3-2 (22-87, 32-71, 72-26, 62-31, 76-36).

Group E: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Anuj Sharma (Goa) 3-0 (80-22, 72-35, 110 (61)-7); Anand Raghuvanshi (Mah) bt Kunal Manchanda (Raj) 3-0 (50-39, 61-11, 69-32).

Group F: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Rajat Khaneja (Chd) 3-2 (10-75, 10-91 (65), 88 (88)-8, 60-25, 61-16); Vivek Chopra (Pun) bt Dhawal Mackwana (Guj) 3-0 (60-15, 67-9, 63-42).

Group G: Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Dhruv Varma (Pun) 3-0 (64-21, 78-33, 93 (59)-3); Rishit Jain (Del) bt Jeet Kishore Das (Ori) 3-0 (70-21, 73-58, 66-45).

Group H: Rafath Habib (Rlys) bt Sukumar Barman (Asm) 3-0 (88 (50)-1, 61-20, 92 (91)-2).

Group I: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Mridul Das (Asm) 3-1 (28-58, 67-63, 72-17, 53-43).

Group J: Sumit Talwar (Chd) bt AR Arjun (Kar) 3-0 (79 (51)-2, 54-17, 63-43).

Group K: Pushpinder Singh (Rlys) bt Rahul Bhargava (Raj) 3-1 (64-1, 78-31, 30-58, 76 (54)-12).

Group L: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Rupesh Chauhan (HP) 3-0 (68-34, 70 (69)-1, 63 (40)-7).

Group M: Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Valney Gomendis (Goa) 3-0 (97 (75)-0, 86-1, 66-22); Shankar Rao (AP) bt Kamal Rohmetra (J and K) 3-2 (63-19, 71-14, 30-72, 79-93, 81-38).

Group N: Imran Ganj (TN) bt Sundeep Gulati (Del) 3-0 (22, 79 (51), 24-87, 12-77); Lalrina Renthlei (Miz) bt Rishabh Pandya (Mah) 3-1 (50-57, 68-34, 59-43, 58-57).

Group O: Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Hasan Badami (Mah) 3-2 (14-71 (70), 1-58 (53), 58-23, 69-33, 79-49); Dhvaj Haria (Guj) bt Rushabh Jain (Mah) 3-1 (69-8, 71-61, 40-48, 53-40).

Group P: Faisal Khan (Rlys) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0 (58-31, 74-4, 90-21); R Girish (Rlys) bt Manish Jain (Ben) 3-0 (84-33, 64 (50)-23, 64-29).