ONGC-IBSF World Billiards Championship 2008 :: Bangalore - India

01 - 10 September 2008

after First Semi Final

Handsome is what handsome does. The pride and glory of Indian cue sports, the suave and debonair cueist from Ahmedabad India, cruised to a fine five games to three victory over his countrymate, Devendra Joshi to sail into the final of the ONGC sponsored 2008 IBSF World billiards points format championship on Thursday evening at the McDowell billiards hall of the KSBA complex here. Geet Sethi won by 102-151, 95-151, 02-151, 150-126, 152-57, 152-16, 152-112 and 150-00.

When he is on song, Geet is sheer poetry in motion. To add to it, his uncanny ability to perform to potential when down under makes him all the more special, and special it was in the second session of the first semifinal. The ace cueist was in full flow rallying back from a 1-3 first session deficit, in his inimitable style, Geet brooked no answer in the second session of the best of 9 games first semifinal almost wrapping up the game on a trot even as Joshi failed to build up on a solid advantage which he had so created through sheer grit and determination.

As predicted in these columns yesterday, the first semifinal was a high quality game signified by the plethora of the breaks chalked up by both cueists. Geet compiled superlative inputs of a 152 in the fifth, a 139 in the sixth, a 152 again in the seventh and a 146 in the eighth while in the first session of the match, Joshi had breaks of a 122 in the first, a 143 in the second and a 142 in the third.

In the first session of the first semifinal, it was Geet who got the initiative. Chalking up a break which broke down at 87 when he spoiled the position at 85, he offered a chance to Joshi. Pouncing on the opportunity provided, Joshi slowly but surely clawed to a top of the table position, keeping Geet importantly away from the table, in the process of getting an useful break to wrest the advantage by pocketing the first game forging a 1-0 lead.

Once he had taken the opening game, Joshi displayed an exquisite touch, addressing the balls softly and delicately. He may not seem to have the charisma of Geet but he more than makes up for this lacking by having a high degree of concentration. Joshi was simply in superb touch in the first three games. He was methodical yet fluent and to add to the woes of Geet, he seemed to possess monumental patience like a Buddhist monk as he coaxed and cajoled the balls on top table play.

Geet was actually paying the price for his very slight carelessness of the first game. However, Geet did get a God sent chance in the fourth game which showed that Joshi was a human being after all. The professional that he is, Geet made no mistake in snatching the crucial fourth game to have a semblance of chance for himself after resumption in the second session of the match in the afternoon and it was there for everyone to behold as he reeled off break over a break to break the resistance of Joshi and emerge triumphant.