Mumbai: National Junior snooker champions Digvijay Kadian of Haryana exhibited impressive potting touch and constructed four substantial breaks to record an authoritative 4-0 victory against Priyan Jaiswal of Madhya Pradesh in a round of 64 best-of-seven-frame match of the Rs 12.1 lakh prize-money CCI Snooker Classic 2023, organised by the Cricket Club of India, and played at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall on Monday.
The 20-year-old talented cueist potted consistently to make breaks of 66, 71, 82 and 76 during his fluent 80-28, 81-1, 96-7, and 76-30 win.
Meanwhile, K. Srini of Railways caused a major upset as he stunned former National Junior snooker champion Kreishh Gurbaxani of Maharashtra 4-2 (60-53, 0-92, 50-71, 79-17, 66-27, 68-43). Srinu after losing the opening two frames and trailing 0-17 in the third produced a stupendous break of 79 to pocket the fourth to level the frames scores at 2-all and then comfortably won the next two frames to close out the contest.
Earlier, Jaison Malhotra of Delhi dished out a spirited fighting display as he fought back from the brink of defeat to put it across his compatriot Luv Kukreja registering a fighting 4-3 (1-82, 10-72, 52-41, 2-63, 52-45, 67-36, 53-21) win. Kukreja started on a positive note and with runs of 55 and 68 pocketed the first two frames and then won the fourth to gain a 3-1 lead. But, Malhotra staged a remarkable fight winning the remaining three frames to clinch a come-from-behind win.
In another match, E. Pandurangaiah of Railways rattled in a century break of an exact 100 points in the second frame and went on to end the fine run of Pune’s Saad Sayed coasting to a 4-1 (66-59, 104-0, 29-75, 67-32, and 68-40) victory.
Results – Round of 64:
E. Pandurangaiah (Rlys) bt Saad Sayed (Mah) 4-1 (66-59, 104(100)-0, 29-75, 67-32, 68-40); Sumerh Mago (Mum) bt Tahaa Khan (Mah) 4-2 (64-21, 67-68, 46-60, 61-59, 84-50, 96-37); Sandeep Gulati (Del) bt R. Santosh (Ktk) 4-0 (62-24, 77-20, 75-15, 83-34); Jaison Malhotra (Del) bt Luv Kukreja (Del) 4-3 (1-82(55), 10-72(68), 52-41, 2-63, 52-45, 67-36, 53-21); K. Srinu (Rlys) bt Kreishh Gurbaxani (Mum) 4-2 (60-53, 0-92, 50-71, 79(79)-17, 66-27, 68-43); Ketan Chawla (MP) bt Simranjeet Singh (Mum) 4-1 (57-48, 67-9, 77-15, 52-54, 62-32); Paras Gupta (UP) bt Anant Mehta (Mah) 4-0 (49-42, 70-8, 76-14, 72-37); Shivam Arora (Mah) bt Anurag Giri (MP) 4-0 (67-21, 68-63, 63-39, 93-23); Dilip Kumar ( ) bt Krish Bajaj 4-1 (54-14, 9-71(67), 62-29, 95(92)-3, 51-42); Digvijay Kadian (Har) bt Priyank Jaiswal (MP) 4-0 (80(66)-28, 81(71)-1, 96(82)-7, 76(76)-30); Shoaib Khan (Del) bt Faisal Khan (Rlys) 4-0 (48-36, 56-48, 68-9, 53-21).
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