Dhvaj Haria showed superb touch and stole the thunder rolling in a magnificent effort of 141, currently the top break in the competition, and went on to dash the hopes of young Pinak Anap by snatching a tight 4-3 frame scores in a best-of-7-frame first round match of the Rs 12.5 lakh prize-money CCI Snooker Classic 2024, organised by the Cricket Club of India and played at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, CCI’s upcoming cuesist Krish Bajaj went down fighting against Samar Khandelwal 2-4 in a closely contested first round encounter. Khandelwal ran up a break of 43 in the opening frame and then raced to a 2-0 lead, before Bajaj staged a gallant fight back by winning the next two frames to draw level at 2-all. But, lack of experience saw Bajaj narrowly lose the next two frames as Khandelwal wrapped up the match posting a 64-16, 53-45, 21-58, 30-73, 53-41 and 75-72 verdict to advance to the second round.
The lanky left-handed Gujarat cueist Haria, potted fluently and produced that marathon run in the second frame to open up a 2-0 lead. The gutsy Anap managed to win the next two frames to level the scores before Haria constructed another substantial break of 64 to win the fifth to stay in the lead. Once again Anap drew level as he with smart play managed to pocket the sixth frame. Haria managed to stay focused and went on to win the deciding frame to clinch a 92-2, 141-0, 25-67, 53-71, 76-31, 39-69 and 60-30 frame scores win.
Later, J. Arun Kumar also constructed a century break of 105 and two other substantial breaks of 58 and 49 to defeat R. Girish 4-0 (67-57, 73-42, 76-50, 105-8) in a first round encounter between Chennai based players.
In another keenly contested encounter, lucky loser Abhishek Bajaj dished out a much-improved performance and with a bit of luck managed to scrape past Siddharth Parikh 4-3 (13-54, 60-12, 74-63(55), 9-59, 56-5, 0-78(78), and 66-61).
Results – Round 1: Abhishek Bajaj bt Siddharth Parikh 4-3 (13-54, 60-12, 74-63(55), 9-59, 56-5, 0-78(78), 66-61); Digvijay Kadian bt Vishwajeet Mohan 4-1 (68-49, 69-49, 61-75, 60-49, 56(48)-14); Anurag Giri bt Shoaib Khan 4-1 (87(50)-8, 88-30, 28-73, 79(58)-20, 93-27); Rrahul Sachdev bt Gaurav Deshmukh 4-2 (60-22, 67(59)-18, 64-62, 31-76, 41-77, 66-28); Sparsh Pherwani bt Md. Hussain Khan 4-2 (95(44)-21, 67(57)-32, 59-67, 94-0, 22-63, 71-25); Pushpender Singh bt Aashit Pandya 4-2 (46-81, 46-62, 75-37, 76(76)-15, 62-38, 75(53)-12); Dhvaj Haria bt Pinak Anap 4-3 (92-2, 141(141)-0, 25-67, 53-71, 76(64)-31, 39-69, 60-30); Alfie Lee bt Rovin D'Souza 4-2 (77-1, 51-61, 30-81, 73-28, 63-54, 57-12); J. Arun Kumar bt R. Girish 4-0 (67-57, 73(58)-42, 76(49)-50, 105(105)-8; Nikhil Saigal bt Paras Gupta 4-1 (69(59)-37, 41-65, 60-31, 75(51)-32, 64-23); Rayaan Razmi bt Vinay Swaminathan 4-2 (65-38, 79-36, 50-63, 57-45, 38-59, 101-21); Kamal Chawla bt Shahbaaz Adil Khan 4-1 (85-8, 68(49)-24, 32-69(60), 79-40, 79-7); Laxman Rawat bt Imran Khan 4-2 (105(86)-33, 23-78, 78(78)-7, 27-63, 74(69)-23, 61-12); Samar Khandelwal bt Krish Bajaj 4-2 (64(43)-16, 53-45, 21-58, 30-73, 53-41, 75-72); Hrithik Jain bt Dhruv Patel 4-3 (68(47)-46, 7-68, 81(52)-1, 47-76, 24-74, 73-63, 80(48)-0).
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