Mumbai: Arun Agrawal of Matunga Gymkhana survived scare before pulling out a narrow 4-3 wi over. Rayaan Razmi of Radio Club to emerge champion in the BSAM organised Maharashtra State Junior Snooker and Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg 1) Championship, at the P J Hindu Gymkhana billiards room, here on Sunday.
The Matunga Gymkhana's Agarwal denied a double delight for the 17-year-old Rayaan, who had won the junior snooker, with a 116-150, 150-101, 121-151, 151-95, 76-152, 150-123, 151-69 scoreline to grab the trophy.
Both Agrawal and Rayaan put up spirited performances and gave it their best shot as they cashed in on every opportunity to accumulate the points to compile quite many noteworthy breaks.
The match was evenly poised as they shared the opening four frames winning them alternately. Rayaan with 41 runs managed to win the fifth to regain the lead (3-2).
Rayaan held the upper hand in the sixth as he rolled a 57 break to enjoy a 123-96 point lead, but fell short and could not complete the win, which allowed Agrawal to get back into the match. Agrawal produced a timely controlled unfinished break of 54 to steal the frame from the youngster and level the match scores at 3-all. In the tense decider, the veteran Matunga Gym cueist strung together match-winning efforts of 45 and 55 to pocket the frame and wrap the contest in his favour and emerge victorious.
Agrawal for his victory earned 500 points which he will carry to the second leg, while Rayaan had to rest content with 450 points.
Results:
SFs: A Agrawal (Matunga Gymkhana) bt R Sharma (Malabar Hill Club) 3-0 (152 (47,40)-94, 150 (87,54)-51 (42), 151 (77,47)-121); R Razmi (Radio Club) bt R Khandwala (CC I) 3-1 (151 (62) -33, 152 (56)-107, 106-150, 150-85).
Final: A Agrawal (Matunga Gym) bt Rayaan Razmi (Radio Club) 4-3 (116 (74)-150 (53), 150 (51)-101 (56), 121(57)-151, 151 (57,51)-95, 76-152 (41), 150 (54)-123 (57), 151 (55,45) -69).
