Finally Young winsome Lady from Karnataka, Keerthana Pandian broke her jinx when she outplayed triple Crown holder of the Manisha Vascon 2020 National billiards & snooker championship here on Sunday evening.
Keerthana defeated her nemesis and good friend, off the table, from Tamil Nadu, Anupama Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu in three straight frames to annexe the Junior girls snooker title of the 30 days cue sports extravaganza being organized by BSAM under the auspices of the BSFI.
Keerthana potting quite confidently and positioning her cue ball with felicity was more than a match for Anupama in the battle for the title.
Only in the third frame could Anupama make an impression, but by then Keerthana was too poised finally winning the encounter by 61-31, 59-18 and 60-50 points.
In the position to decide the third and fourth positions in junior girls snooker, Ishika Shah of Madhya Pradesh was right on top dominating the proceedings ending with a two straight frames victory over her state mate from Indore, Kanisha Jhurani winning by 64-30 and 53-09 points to get the third spot. Kanisha finished fourth.
In the meanwhile, it was a red letter day for the players from the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Out of the seven who made an appearance in the double elimination round of the Seniors snooker event, four players made it to the main rounds.
The first to draw attention was the seasoned campaigner from Prayag Raj, Vinayak Agarwal. Having lost in a decider to Hasan Badami earlier on, getting a chance from the losers side, he played some brilliant snooker to down the promising lad from Maharashtra, Sparsh Pherwani but not before the match had extended to full five frames.
Vinayak won the ” Cliff Hanger “by 47-76, 24-57, 78-29, 58-48, and 57-55 points on the decisive black ball to enter the main round.
Then followed The young Junior player from Lucknow, Vishwajeet Mohan who fought a tooth and nail five frames we’ll contested tie with Akram Khan. With the match tied at two frames all, it was anybody’s game till the last.
However, Vishwajeet kept his cool on the colours stage to wrest the frame and match for an entry into the main rounds of the Senior snooker event which starts tommorrow morning.
Playing against Sean Davis of Karnataka, UP snooker champion from Lucknow, Anuj Bhargava counted on his good experience and temperament to overwhelm his rival in four frames.
Leading by two frames to one, Anuj appeared to be in the drivers seat but Sean rallied very well to bring the frame to the black decider.
This is where Anuj was very lucky when Sean in trying a safety of the black went in- off gifting the frame and match to Anuj who won by 64-53, 41-47, 56-47 and 56-53 points to gain an entry into the main snooker round.
Yet the climax for the UP State came when Veteran cueist who turns 60 years of age next month, Kan Kan Shamsi also from Lucknow used his vast experience to a prime advantage outlasting Jammu & Kashmir player, Vidit Gawri in five fully extended frames by 64-18, 39-72, 43-47, 61-21 and 68-13 points to make the main round.
When Kan Kan trailed by 1-2 frames with Gawri potting well, all thought that it was all over for the Veteran, but suddenly mixing intelligent safety with some neat potting at crucial juncture, Kan Kan not only levelled the score at 2-2 but went on to grab the deciding frame comfortably.
In other matches to decide the player to qualify, Faisal Khan of RSPB beat Suraj Rathi of MP by 3-0 frames.
Hrithik Jain of MP beat MS Arun of Karnataka by 3-1 frames.
Manish Jain of West Bengal prevailed over Piyush Khushawa of MP by 3-2 frames.
Arshad Zama of West Bengal beat Varun Kumar of TN on the last decisive black ball winning by 3-2 frames.
And in another five frame affair Mizoram player, Lalrina R beat Younis Kuchey of J& K by 3-2 frames to qualify for the main stage.
I. S. Malik
Media Officer,
UPBSA
