Mehta stuns Advani
to win CCI snooker crown
19.03.2019 - Mumbai
Indian Oil cueist
Aditya Mehta produced a tremendous performance and with some slick
potting breezed to a stunning 7-3 victory against arch-rival Pankaj
Advani in the final of the CCI Open Snooker 2019.
It was a great comeback for Mehta who had been struggling due to
some health issues and has been playing with an unorthodox stance
and cueing action, did well to cruise to a 62-60, 0-91, 38-63,
37-70, 74-39, 79-7, 62-59, 84-13, 72-13 and 65-19 victory.
Mehta received the 'Champions' trophy and a cheque of Rs 2 lakh.
While Advani got the runners-up prize of Rs 1.30 lakh. Advani also
pocketed Rs.25,000 for the highest break of 131, which he had
earlier constructed in the round of 64 match.
Both the ace cueists Advani and Mehta warmed up perfectly and
quickly got into the groove by compiling half century breaks. The
top-ranked Indian Advani showed promise at the start and on his
second visit made a 53 run to gain the advantage, but a couple of
visits later he fouled on the pink and Mehta did not waste time as
he neatly rolled in a 56 break to take the opening honours.
The National champion Advani came good in the second and after
making a 29 run at the start he followed it up with a break of 62 to
pocket the frame and tie the scores. Later, Advani won the next two
by close margins to take a 3-1 lead.
However, Mehta playing with plenty of guts and gumption managed to
snatch the fifth to bridge the gap and then constructed a super 79
clearance to win the sixth to go into the short interval with the
scores level at 3-3.
Mehta maintained the winning momentum on resumption and came up with
timely 43 clearance to snatch the seventh frame to regain the lead
4-3. Thereafter, Mehta played with greater confidence and potted
more consistently as he went on to also pocket the subsequent three
frames to wrap up the match and emerge champion.
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