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

01 - 10 September 2008

Continuing their dominance on the "green baize" as in the earlier points format world billiards championship, once again the Indian cueists reasserted their supremacy in the time format too. It was an all India affair even as the last four stage was reached in the ONGC sponsored IBSF World billiards time format championship

Champions are made of stern stuff. The more you put them under pressure, the more their game flowers. This was amply proved here at the MC Dowell billiards hall at the KSBA complex here on Monday.

Defending time format world billiards champion, Pankaj Advani playing in one of the quarter finals of the 2008 event displayed a great character and a cool nerve to stage a magnificent rally in a thrilling four hour match against the spirited challenger, Sourav Kothari edging him by a mere 63 points at 1356-1293 points and enter the semifinals where he now faces the billiards maestro, Geet Sethi while in the other semifinal match, Rupesh Shah will battle it out with Devendra Joshi for a place in the final. While Rupesh beat former world billiards champion from Singapore, Peter Gilchrist by 1182-966 points, Devendra Joshi nosed out Dhruv Sitwala by mere six points at 1108-1102.

Vintage top of the table play was witnessed in the Pankaj Advani - Sourav Kothari four hour match. Initially, Making breaks of 116 and 122, Pankaj led in the first session. When the first session ended, Sourav was attempting a comeback with an unfinished break of 85. On resumption, Sourav carried the break to 126 reducing the deficit. With Pankaj lapsing into errors, Sourav struck a purple patch to chalk up breaks of 119, 106, 136 and a 186 to take the lead.

Pankaj unmindful of Sourav's show came into his own to post breaks of 122, 101, 210 and 197 to come within reach of the last post. However it was a crucial break of 56 followed by tactical safety ploys that eventually fetched victory and helped Pankaj come out unscathed in a very high quality match. Nevertheless, if he has to get past the marauding Geet Sethi, the young local hope will have to be at his best.

The Joshi - Sitwala tie was also of great content. If Joshi got a 101 and a 288, Sitwala also had notable efforts of 240, 136 and a 186 to show. Actually, Dhruv was a trifle unlucky as he missed out on sitter shot to allow Joshi the luxury of a win on this day.

Peter Gilchrist was off - colour in his match with Rupesh Shah, the latter put tremendous pressure on Gilchrist when he compiled breks of 104, 150, 188, 257 and a 156 on the way to a 1182 - 966 points victory. Gilchrist only got one break of 181 which can be termed as a good effort. Rupesh in the end won comfortably.

In his match with Thawat Sujaritthurakarn of Thailand , Geet Sethi chalked up magnificent breaks of 293, 196, 334, 144 and a 187. Thawat managed two centuries, a break of 105 and a break of 123 but obviously that fell well below the required class and skill. The way Geet is playing in this championship, he is the man to beat which incidentally makes him the odds on favourite for the title this year and if this is proved wrong it will come as more than a surprise

CSI Correspondent - I S Malik