Mumbai : The Break Builders produced some master-class performances to emerge champions of the LIC-Snooker Premier League – 2016, organized by BSAM (Billiards & Snooker Association of Maharashtra). In the summit clash, The Break Builders were on a roll and hardly brooked much opposition from Royal Strikers to register a convincing 3-0 win in the best-of-5-game contest, at the Garware Club House on Saturday evening.
The victorious Break Builders team received the crystal ‘Champions’ trophy and a cash award of Rs 8 lakh from Chief Guest, Aditya Thackeray, Chairman, Yuva Sena. Royal Strikers were presented with the runners-up trophy and a cash prize of Rs 6 lakh. Unicca Challeger who finished third received a cash prize of Rs 3.5 lakh and fourth placed Satrangi Squad took home a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh.
The Break Builder got off to a dream start with Manan Chandra and Shahbaz A. Khan winning the opening two games to help the team establish a healthy 2-0 lead. Former National champion Manan was in complete control as he easily sidelined Sourav in two quick frames (66-23, 66-21) in the 15-red first game, later Shahbaz also came up with a domineering performance and compiled a break of 69 and went on to blank veteran cueist Alok Kumar also by a 2-0 (39-20, 69-0) margin in the 6-red second game. Maintaining their fine winning momentum, Break Builders double combination of Rishabh Thakkar, the co-owner of the team and young Sparsh Pherwani defeated Sunil Jain and Hasan Badami 76-34 to quickly wrap up the match.
Earlier in semi-final encounters, Royal Strikers blanked Satrangi Squad 3-0 and The Breaker Builder were taken the distance before they prevailed over Unicca Challengers by a 3-2 margin in the best-of-5-games match.
On the side table, The Break Builder recovered after losing the opening two games to clinch victory. An uncharacteristic Siddharth Parikh lost 0-2 to R. Girish in the 6-red first game and then Manan Chandra suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Faisal Khan in the 15-red second game as Builder stared defeat. But, Break Builders doubles pair of Shabaz Khan and Gaurav Jaisinghani brought them back into the fight as they scored over Nalin Patel and Amee Kamani 55-49 in the single frame doubles game. Having finally found success, Break Builders’ co-owner Rishabh Thakkar came to the table and overcame Rovin D’Souza 2-0 in the 6-red fourth game to level the scores at 2-all. In the deciding fifth game (1 frame tie-breaker) Manan Chandra riding on a small but useful break of 44 defeated Faisal Khan 83-11 to settle the issue in favour of his team.
