NSCI All India Snooker Open: State cueists Kreishh Gurbaxani, Hasan Badami advance

Mumbai: Maharashtra number one, Kreishh Gurbaxani continued with his impressive run of form to kill the late fightback from India number eight Shahbaz Adil Khan (PSPB) by carving out a 4-2 (69-42, 69-12, 104-32, 44-70, 54-67, and 71-1) victory in a Group-F match of the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) organised Rs 6.4 lakh-NSCI All India Snooker Open ‘Baulkline’ 2022 and played at the NSCI billiards hall late Wednesday.

Kreishh started with runs of 52 and 49 in the first two frames and then neatly crafted a century 104 effort in the third, to complete his third successive win in the group and a place in the pre-quarter-final.

Hasan Badami of Maharashtra joined Kreishh in the last 16 round, recording his second win in the same group. Badami showed a steady approach and grabbed his chances to outsmart state-mate Shahbaz Khan by charging to 4-1 (10-74, 53-29, 70-24, 70-33, and 62-52) victory.

Later in the day, National snooker champion Ishpreet Singh Chadha and Sparsh Pherwani, both from Maharashtra won their concluding Group-A matches to progress to the knockout pre-quarters. India number one Ishpreet did not have to exert too much as he was awarded the first three frames since his opponent Mahesh Jagdale of Maharashtra arrived late for the match and was penalized. Jagdale won the fourth before Ishpreet won the fifth to record a facile win.

On the side table, Sparsh was in top form and blanked Gujarat’s Ranveer Singh winning by a comfortable 4-0 (67-39, 66-58, 77-37, 65-17) frame margin.

Meanwhile, Kamla Chawla of Railways was on a high recording a mammoth 136 points break, the highest in the competition, as he breezed past Anuj Uppal of Delhi racing to 4-0 (58-38, 59-52, 136-0, and 69-31) win in a Group-D late Tuesday evening. The tall cueists Chawla continued to impress and churned out another dazzling show compiling breaks of 111, 44 and 83 points to send young double National Junior champion (billiards and snooker) Rayaan Razmi of Maharashtra crashing to a 4-2 (31-67, 112-3, 88-3, 62-32, 47-77, and 83-16) defeat.

Results - Group-A: Ishpreet Singh Chadha (MAH) beat Sparsh Pherwani (MAH) 34-91, 89-28, 108(95)-0, 73-46, 71(58)-1, 58-42, 105(71)-0.

Mahesh Jagdale (MAH) beat Ranveer Singh (GUJ) 4-3 (75-60, 32-52, 42-60, 63-16, 17-49, 52-41, 85-0).

Group-C: Manan Chandra (PSPB) beat Rahul Sachdev (MAH) 4-1 (123(104)-0, 68-5, 92(78)-2, 50-85, 60-14).

Rajat Kaneja (CHD) beat Sumit Talwar (CHD) 66-0, 25-60, 61(35)-43, 81(39,33)-41, 27-65, 48-60, 66(40)-41).

Group-E: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) beat K. Venkatesham (RLYS) 4-3 (69-44, 49-60, 67-24, 39-57, 57-30, 30-62, 77-28).

Group-G: Pushpender Singh (RLYS) beat Abhishek Bajaj (MAH) 4-1 (85(76)-18, 66-23, 93(49,31)-19, 18-60, 87(86)-34).

Published on: Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 09:25 PM IST