Radio Club’s upcoming talent Rayaan Razmi once again showed plenty of promise, but due to a bit of inexperience and the inability to land the knockout punch proved to be his undoing. The young cueist tasted another close defeat in the final, when he went down fighting to senior pro Arun Agrawal of Matunga Gymkhana 4-3 in an absorbing best-of-7-frame contest of the Senior men’s billiards event of the BSAM organized Maharashtra State Junior Snooker and Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg 1) Championship – 2019, played at the P.J. Hindu Gymkhana billiards room.
The 17-year-old Rayaan, who had won the junior snooker title had suffered a similar loss to CCI’s Hasan Badami by three frames to four in a keenly fought senior men’s snooker final.
Both Agrawal and Rayaan put up spirited performances and gave it their best shot as they cashed in on every opportunity to accumulate the points to compile quite a number of noteworthy breaks.
Matunga Gymkhana’s Arun Agrawal staved off a spirited fight from young Rayaan Razmi by pulling off a 4-3 win to clinch the Senior men’s billiards title in the Maharashtra State Junior Snooker and Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg 1) Championship .
The match was evenly poised as they shared the opening four frames winning them alternately. Rayaan with 41 run managed to win the fifth to regain the lead (3-2).
Rayaan held the upper hand in the sixth as he rolled a 57 break to enjoy a 123-96 point lead, but fell short and could not complete the win, which allowed Agrawal to get back into the match. Agrawal produced a timely controlled unfinished break of 54 to steal the frame from the youngster and level the match scores at 3-all. In the tense decider, the veteran Matunga Gym cueist strung together match-winning efforts of 45 and 55 to pocket the frame and wrap the contest in his favour and emerge victorious. Agrawal posted a 116-150, 150-101, 121-151, 151-95, 76-152, 150-123, 151-69 frame scores victory.
Earlier in semi-final encounters, Agrawal blanked Malabar Hill Club’s Raajeev Sharma cruising to 3-0 (152-94, 150-51 and 151-121) win, while Rayaan prevailed over Cricket Club of India’s Raj Khandwala 3-1 (151-33, 152-107, 106-150 and 150-85).
Agrawal for his victory earned 500 points which he will carry to the second leg, while Rayaan had to rest content with 450 points.
Results –
Semi-finals: Arun Agrawal (Matunga Gymkhana) beat Raajeev Sharma (Malabar Hill Club) 3-0 (152(47,40)-94, 150(87,54)-51(42), 151(77,47)-121);
Rayaan Razmi (Radio Club) beat Raj Khandwala (Cricket Club of Inida) 3-1 (151(62)-33, 152(56)-107, 106-150, 150-85).
Final: Arun Agrawal (Matunga Gym) beat Rayaan Razmi (Radio Club) 4-3 (116(74)-150(53), 150(51)-101(56), 121(57)-151, 151(57,51)-95, 76-152(41), 150(54)-123(57), 151(55,45)-69).