|
|
National Billiards & Snooker Championship 2008 - Indore
Yeshwant Club
Race Course Road - Indore - 452 003 - Madhya Pradesh
Rafath
goes down fighting to Yasin Merchant
By I.S. Malik
Yasin stumbles forward, faces Manan
By Pradeep Vijayakar
|
|
|
Rafath goes
down fighting to Yasin Merchant
By I.S. Malik
In a match between former Asian Gold medalist partners, Rafath Habib went down fighting to Yasin Merchant by two frames to four in the last 32 knock-out stage of the Seniors snooker event here at the Yeshwant club's billiards hall on Thursday evening even as the 23 day National billiards & snooker championship being played here at Indore.
On the 20th day of the events jointly organized by the Madhya Pradesh Billiards & Snooker Association and the Yeshwant Club, Yasin Merchant of Maharashtra beat The Railways player from Chennai, Rafath Habib by 85-14, 54-44, 60-45, 71-77, 47-59 and 53-48 in a match which had the appreciative audience glued on the edge of their seats as Yasin thwarted a late surge from Rafath to win and move upto the last sixteen stage.
Yasin was comfortably placed at 3-0 in the best of seven frames match with some neat potting and superb cue-ball control but Rafath clawed his way back with determination by winning the fourth and fifth frames. However, Yasin who is a treat to watch what with his pure attacking style of play foiled the bid of Rafath by pocketing the sixth frame and match.
Another Railways player Kamal Chawla from Bhopal nevertheless gave a scintillating performance to beat Ajay Bhushan of Karnataka in five frames by 78- 06, 55-25, 68-09, 61-70 and 81-09. The moment Kamal chalked up a break of 58 in the first frame he never looked back to completely dominate the proceedings even if lapsing in the fourth frame on the run of play to score a comprehensive victory.
The best display nonetheless came from the gritty toiler from Ahmedabad cueist, Rupesh Shah of the Railways who beat his small sized but talented city mate, Raunaq Vazirani by 52-16, 44-78, 92-05, 66-33, 50-65 and 77-25 points. The breaks of 86 in the third and the break of 76 in the sixth proved that Rupesh is a force to reckon with in the game of snooker in the country. His grinding method of play notwithstanding this determined bespectacled cueist surely means business whenever he comes on the “green baize" to display his wares. His concentration level and prowess in potting is undoubted.
In another match local boy, K. Jhanjaria was stopped in his tracks by Kolkata player, Brijesh Damani in six frames by 70-09, 71-25, 48-73, 26-59, 78-25 and 69-37 points. Jhanjaria did well to rally from a 0-2 frames deficit to restore parity at 2-2 by wresting the third and fourth frames but Damani kept his cool to overwhelm the Indore youngster with some intelligent snooker play to take the fifth and sixth frames quite comfortably.
Petroleum Sports Promotion Board's Player from Kolkata was another cueist to impress as he beat promising Siddharth Sen from Orissa in six frames by 47-57, 79-49, 60-62, 77-36, 39-34 and 80-24 points. Sharing the first four frames evenly at two frames a piece, Shahbaz who has matured into a formidable opponent for his world class PSPB mates like Pankaj Advani, Manan Chandra, Sourav Kothari and Alok Kumar was all keyed up as he first snatched the fifth frame from Sen on the black ball and then playing in a unblemished manner in the sixth to clinch the frame and match with some comfort in the end.
Earlier in the morning, Gujarat's youngster, Rishab Pandya had frustrated the Delhi snooker player, Sandeep Gulati in six frames by 67-20, 43-55, 18-55, 85-39. 63-40 and 76-27 points. Actually, Gulati was the one who led by 2-1 at the half way stage of the match but Pandya potting with flair took the next three frames in a row to put the issue beyond doubt. All winners of the day now enter the more exacting round of 16.
Yasin
stumbles forward, faces Manan
By Pradeep
Vijayakar
The most interesting pairing of the round of 32 in the 75th National Senior Men's Snooker Championship being conducted by the MP Billiards and Snooker Association here was 2002 Asian Games snooker doubles gold winners Yasin Merchant and Rafath Habib clashing with each other. Yasin didn't let his partner any toehold with a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven tie. Then, of a sudden, everything began going wrong. Yasin just couldn't fathom the behaviour of the balls. Worse he kept going in-off and near-in-offs shattered his confidence and Habib rammed home the advantage with two frames.
In the sixth Habib was in with a chance to level at 3-all when he needed the blue. But he got self-snookered on the pink, the first time Lady Luck smiled, allowing Yasin to get away to a lucky win. If he doesn't overcome this brinkmanship Yasin might find it tough against Manan Chandra next in the last 16. In contrast young guns Aditya Mehta and Pankaj Advani won 4-0 with Aditya, the only Indian pro, making 86 the highest of the tournament which hasn't seen a century break with the round of 16 reached. A dubious record?
If the last 32 redraw has got the big guns facing off prematurely (there is a possibility of Aditya Mehta playing Pankaj Advani in the last eight), it was because the league performances got weightage with Sandeep Gulati who didn't drop a frame and Pankaj Advani being the top two and to the different ends of the draw, Gulati on lots going to the top half.
Alas he didn't last long enough to enjoy the pedestal, being ousted by Mumbai lad Rishab Pandya 4-1. All the frames were close as both missed a lot. Pandya, the 2006 junior snooker champ, potted well but his cue-ball control at times deserted him causing him more anxiety than he should have experienced. He meets Bengal's Brijesh Damani next who settled the aspirations of Kanishk Jhanjaria. The local lad, who had beaten Devendra Joshi, did well to take two frames.
Of the early bird players, Lucky Vatnani from Hyderabad showed imperious touch while blanking Bengal's Manish Jain. Double billiards junior champ Shahbaz Khan was a convincing winner against Orissa's Siddharth Sen. Two Ahmedabadis squared off: Rupesh Shah of Railways’ and Raunaq Vazirani from Gujarat. Vazirani a sub-junior billiards champ of last year has a good style. He won two frames but Rupesh raised his game with runs of 86 and 76 to earn a meeting with Railways' Kamal Chawla. If the form book holds the last eight line-up should be Vatnani vs Shahbaz; Rupesh vs. Yasin/Manan; Alok vs. Sourav Kothari and Aditya Mehta vs. Pankaj Advani.
The women's snooker league also commenced with Karnataka's Chitra who lost to
Uma Devi in the billiards final looking to have better luck.