Samarth Vernekar produced a spirited fighting performance to record a stunning 3-1 win against fancied Sumehr Mago in a second round qualifying match of the 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 Monday.
The MIG Cricket Club cueist potted steadily against the uncharacteristic Khar Gymkhana cueist Mago to carve out a 76-36, 38-72, 61-33 and 62-30 win to advance to the third round.
Later, seasoned cueist Rovin D'Souza easily defeated Akash Israni 3-0 in another second round encounter.
Meanwhile, Santosh Abnave was also in good nick and brushed aside the challenge from Bilal Advani racing to a 3-0 (87-41, 58-7, and 55-6) victory.
Results – Qualifying Round 2: Sagar Jain bt Gaurav Jaisinghani 3-2 (55-62, 24-64, 60-52, 47-32, 57-47); Uddeshya Seth bt Sumit Saldurkar 3-0 (69-35, 60-35, 67-54); Kalpesh Meveda bt Pradeep Jadhav 3-2 (69-6, 33-55, 70-21, 33-69, 36-70); Prayanshu Palan bt Siddharth C 3-0 (65-31, 53-52, 54-31); Santosh Abnave bt Bilal Advani 3-0 (87-41, 58-7, 55-6); Hardik Karia bt Anil Kumar 3-2 (44-36, 51-37, 68-45, 33-46, 13-52); Rovin D'Souza bt Akash Israni 3-0 (71-32, 57-11, 81(57)-7); Aditya Agrawal bt Arafat Shaikh 3-0 (54-14, 87-9, 107-9);
