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National Billiards & Snooker Championship
The Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium
Yousuf Guda - Hyderabad
:: Report - 18.12.2007 ::
by CSI Correspondent
Isthmit Singh Malik
Hyderabad: 17.12.2007 - A good break can only win you a frame not a match. This was proved on Tuesday evening here at the Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Indoor stadium in Yousufguda in the seniors snooker section of the 2007 National billiards & snooker championship when the Aegis BPO -- Essar Group sponsored Delhi player, Anuj Uppal waited for his chance patiently to score a three frames to two victory over the promising Kolkata lad, Manish Jain by 62-51, 37-69, 65-48, 43-79 and 66-37 points in a league match.
Trailing by 1-2 frames, Manish potting in a superb fashion unleashed a break of 67 to wrest the fourth frame and level the frame scores at 2-2. Evenso, Uppal kept his nerve to mix intelligent safety ploys and score points through sound potting whenever required in the decisive fifth frame to quell the challenge of the youngster and win.
Waim Ahmad also played in the same mould to turn the tables on R. Loganathan before winning an exciting five frames match by 40-26, 70-56, 12-57, 29-54 and 59-54 points. With the appreciative audience gathered in the billiards hall waited with baited breath it was Wasim who emerged as the winner on the black ball decider.
Jammu's Kamal Rohmithra fought valiantly before losing out to Dwaj Haria in five frames . Kamal led by two frames to zero before Haria came from behind with a power packed performance to get the better of Kamal by 19-64, 18-63, 74-30, 71-29 and 59-12 points while local cueist K. Someswara Rao too had to bring out his best to override Railways player, Vijay Kumar. Rao won by 48-15, 42-56, 30-56, 70-17 and 53-33 points.
Divya sharma of Haryana and Sajan Bopana of Karnatka provided sort of upsets as they beat Saurav Kothari of PSPB and S.A. Saleem of Tamil Nadu respectively. Divya had to wait upto the last black to get past an errant Saurav by 16-57, 46-83, 58-52, 60-25 and 49-42 points whereas Bopanna was potting in a whirlwind style to win by 60-16, 61-41 and 56-27 points.
Uttar Pradesh Champion, Anuj Bhargava opened up his campaign with a creditable three frames to one victory over Nikhil Ootam of Maharashtra posting an easy win by 59-39, 26-61, 62-41 and 65-48 points. Anuj was steady in potting and methodical while planing his game beore actual execution of the strokes for a well deserved victory but his state mate, Nishit Prakash was not so lucky as he went down to Ashish Danda. Danda winning by 55-41, 41-79, 60-26 and 63-50 points in which Nishit was done in by his shaky nerve rather than any exceptional show.
Geet Sethi was also brilliant on this day while he drubed Jammu's Vishal Abrol in straight frames by 77-45, 85-19 and 85-0 with a break of 85 in the third frame.
In the Juniors billiards league matches, once again giving a sterling performance Kolkata boy from Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, Shahbaz Adil Khan recorded the highest break of 87 on his way to a mammoth 992- 455 points over his city mate, Manish Jain who had the satisfaction of finishing as the runner-up in the event. Aditya Agarwal of Maharashtra finishing third with Kunal Agarwal bringing up the rear to get the No. 4 spot.