Former two-time world champion Rupesh Shah of Gujarat stole the thunder recording triple century break in cruising to an emphatic 1020-112 victory against Shekar Surve of Mumbai in a Group-E match of the Rs 10 lakh prize-money CCI Classic Invitation Billiards (time format) Championship, organized by the Cricket Club of India, at the Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall on Friday afternoon.
Shah displayed excellent touch and control as warmed up nicely with a break of 109 and followed it up with a 206 point run as he wrested complete dominance against Surve who was unable to get into a rhythm. A couple of visits later, Shah showed his class constructing a sizeable run of 389 to complete the big margin of victory.
Meanwhile, Mumbai-based Siddharth Parikh, also compiled a triple century effort during his 889-241 win against Rajeev Sharma, who suffered his second defeat Group-F. Parikh who had lost the opening match to Sparsh Perwani in the morning was a transformed player and he hit all the high notes making break of 322, 151, 103 and 124 to secure the win. The lanky Parikh meets Durga Prasad, who won both his matches, in concluding group match.
Durga Prasad defeated Pherwani 589-379 for his second win on the trot.
Earlier, India’s ace cue sports player Pankaj Advani started in grand fashion as he breezed past Mumbai’s upcoming talent Shaayan Razmi by a 1015-229 points margin in the opening Group-A league match, in the morning.
The Bengaluru-based Advani, winner of 25 world titles, was in a league of his own and quickly got down to business and started to call the shots. The double National Sub-junior billiards and snooker champ Shaayan could only watch in awe and must have certainly learned a lot from the genius Advani who with substantial breaks of 204, 155 and 169 went on to close out the contest winning by a massive margin.
Later in the day, Indian billiards number 2 Dhruv Sitwala also tasted success in his opening Group-D match. The left-handed Sitwala constructed one break of 101 and went on to defeat Sunil Jain 426-293 points difference.
Meanwhile, Ishpreet Singh Chadda also took off on the right track and raced past Aditya Agrawal cruising to a 740-344 scoreline. Chadda for his showing managed to roll in two decent breaks of 91 and 92 during his victory.
Results – Group-A: Pankaj Advani bt Shaayan Razmi 1015(204,155,169)-299; Loukic Pathare bt Nalin Patel 613(165)-371;
Group-D: Rohan Jambusaria bt Mehul Sutaria 424-357; Dhruv Sitwala bt Sunil Jain 426(101)-293; Ishpreet Singh bt Aditya Agrawal 740(91,92)-344
Group-E: Rupesh Shah bt Shekar Surve 1020(109, 206, 389)-112;
Group-F: Sparsh Pherwani bt Siddharth Parikh 402-386(113);
Durga Prasad bt Rajeev Sharma 585(108)-358;
Durga Prasad bt Sparsh Pherwani 589-379;
Siddharth Parikh beat Rajeev Sharma 889(322, 151, 103, 124)-241;
Group-H: Vishal Madan bt Sourav Kothari 449-349;