A charged up Sourav Kothari of ONGC is going great guns and hogging all the limelight. The Kolkata-based cueist Sourav exhibited exquisite touch and control over the balls as he stamped his class by constructing two double century breaks in each of his wins against Maharashtra players Arun Agrawal and Nishant Dossa in Group-H league matches of the of Rs 3.8 lakhs prize-money CCI Billiards Classic 2018, organized by the Cricket Club of India and played at the Club’s Sir Wilson Jones Billiards Room, Churchgate.
Sourav Kothari constructed a mammoth break of 247 as he went onto outclass Maharashtra’s Nishant Dossa 624-169 at CCI Billiards Classic 2018
The former Asian Billiards champion Kothari playing fluently and striking the balls with regular consistency compiled a mammoth break of 247 as he went on to outclass Dossa 624-169 in a late evening match on Wednesday. He returned to the tables on Thursday and maintained his impressive form by firing a break of 261 as he outplayed Arun Agrawal by a massive 658-96 margin with a measure of ease.
Kothari who has now recorded his third successive win is assured of qualifying to the knockout round of 16 draw along with Dhruv Sitwala, who has also three wins in the 5-team group.
Mumbai-based Siddharth Parikh of Railways made a bright positive start winning his opening two Group-E matches. The experienced Parikh scraped past Maharashtra’s Loukic Pathare by a slender 374-349 margin and had earlier defeated his teammate S. Simhachalam by a facile 669-189 point difference.
Siddharth Parikh of Railways put up fine performance to tame S. Simhachalam 669-189 at CCI Billiards Classic 2018
Meanwhile, Alok Kumar of ONGC and Neeraj Kumar of Railway won their respective concluding Group-D matches and have qualified for the pre-quarter-finals.
The seasoned pro Alok Kumar was in complete control and with breaks of 103, 94 and 79 pulled off a comfortable 514-313 win against Maharashtra’s Aditya Agrawal in the morning session. Later in the day, Neeraj Kumar managed to scrape through past Aditya Agrawal by a close 376-304 margin. Alok finished number one in the group ahead of Neeraj who took second position.
Results – Group-A: Dhvaj Haria (IOC) beat Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) 478(193,96)-264;
Raajeev Sharma (Mah) beat Sandeep Gulati (Del) 367-307;
Raajeev Sharma beat Hasan Badami (Mah) 283-261;
Group-B: Nikhil Ghadge (Rlys) beat Aditya Mehta (Mah) 304(81,54)-294(60,74);
Group-C: V. Subramaniam (Mah) beat Shekhar Surve (Mah) 271(61,106)-220;
Group-D: Alok Kumar (ONGC) beat Aditya Agrawal (Mah) 514(103,94,79)-313;
Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) beat Aditya Agrawal (Mah) 376-304;
Aditya Agrawal (Mah) beat Raayan Razmi (Mah) 473(85,54,60,71)-303;
Group-E: Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) beat S. Simhachalam 669(130,104,67,53)-189;
Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) beat Loukic Pathare (Mah) 374(87,89)-349(54,73);
Group-F: Hitesh Kotwani (Mah) beat Raj Khandwala (Mah) 550(88,84)-233;
K. Venkatesh (Rlys) beat Devendra Joshi (BPCL) 499 (54,51)-248;
Group-G: Brijesh Damani (IOC) beat Rishabh Kumar (Mah) 554(149,79)-296;
Group-H: Dhruv Sitwala (ONGC) beat Arun Agrawal (Mah) 499(92,76,73)-220;
Sourav Kothari (ONGC) beat Nishant Dossa (Mah) 624-(247,138,103)-169(50).
Sourav Kothari (ONGC) beat Arun Agrawal (Mah) 658(105,80,261,90)-96;