Damani, Arora in final

20.12.2014

Brijesh Damani

Brijesh Damani of IOC and Shivam Arora of Bihar registered contrasting wins to set up the title clash, in the Rs. 1.89 lakh NSCI All India 9-Ball Open Pool tournament.

While the former national 6-Red champion, Arora overcame Siddharth Parikh of Railways 9-3, Indian Oil’s Damani, the 2009 Otters Club 9-Ball runner-up, rallied from 4-6 to halt Altamash Saifi of Delhi in a 9-7 thriller.

Saifi squandered a 2-0 and 6-4 lead as Damani snatched four racks in a row to surge ahead 8-6. Saifi made it 7-8 to keep his hopes alive and came within a whisker of drawing level when he potted the 9 but endured an unfortunate in-off that ended his dream run.

Earlier, in an equally exciting quarter-final, another Delhi cueist Avinash Kumar of Uttamnagar, rallied brilliantly from 2-5 to take a 7-5 advantage against Arora. Kumar was a rack away from storming into the semi-finals when Arora snatched three racks in a row to end the former’s campaign. Crunch