India’s young talented cueist, Dhvaj Haria showed an impressive touch in constructing a massive unfinished 176 break as Rockets’ recovered from the loss of the first frame to overcome Siddhant Strikers 3-1 in the best-of-five-frames (100 up format) third round-robin league match of the BSAM (Billiards & Snooker Association of Maharashtra) organized Rs 10 lakh prize-money 2nd Videocon-Billiards Premier League (BPL) 2015, and played at the Cricket Club of India’s Billiards Hall on Friday night. The BPL 2015 is being ‘Powered by Videocon’ and hosted by Bombay Gymkhana.
Dhvaj Haria in action
The 21-year-old tall, lanky Gujarat player Dhvaj playing to a handicap of -190 against Mumbai’s 25-year-old Aditya Agrawal (-170) maintained a cool composure as he neatly played some fine canons and hazards to piece together the huge effort to win the fourth frame and close out the win for his team. This was the second win for Rrockets in three matches, while Strikers are yet to achieve a win.
Earlier, Rrockets’ pairing of veteran Subhash Agrawal and Satbir Narula (-75) failed to get going against the Siddhant Strikers combo of Aditya Agrawal and Rajwardhan Joshi (-100) and conceded a 150-200 defeat in the first frame. Manav Panchal (-60) repaired the damage when he beat Loukic Pathare (-50) 160-127 in the second before the experienced Sarang Shroff (-130) outwitted the wily Arun Agrawal (-190) by 230-107 points in the third frame and give Rrockets a 2-1 cushion.
Meanwhile, current Asian Billiards Champion Dhruv Sitwala carved out a magnificent match-winning performance to help Ottomans secure a tight 3-2 against Adamo Potters. The left-handed billiards pro, Sitwala (-240 handicap) exhibited strong fighting qualities as he came from behind to put it across Siddharth Parikh, playing with the same handicap, in the crucial fifth frame.
In the battle of heavyweights, Sitwala taking time to get off the blocks trailed 9-126 as Parikh, who has shown consistent form opened with a 63 break to gain the initiative. However, Sitwala found his touch on his 6th visit and with fine control ran up a judicious 187 break, which is the second highest break after Parikh’s 189 the previous day, and that helped him to wrest the advantage. Thereafter, he maintained the momentum and went on to win the decisive 5th frame frame 340-163 and wrap up the tie for Ottomans. This was Sitwala’s third century effort after he made 147 and 125 in the first and second rounds repectively.
Earlier, Sitwala provided Ottomans with the perfect start by defeating Hitesh Kotwani (-130) 34-204 in the first frame before his teammate Amit Sapru (-60) won the second against Parikh to give them a 2-0 buffer. However, Ottomans lost the next two frames with their doubles team of Sanjiv Bijlani and V. Subramanian (-100) losing to Adamo Potters pairing of Farhad Tengra and Sunil Jain (-70) by a close 170-173 margin and in the fourth frame Sapru went down tamely to Kotwani 87-230 to take the match to the wire.
Both Ottamans and Adamo Potters now have a 2-1 win-loss record.
Meanwhile, former Asian Games gold medalist Ashok Shandilya led Mumbai Stars to their third straight win as they blanked SPG Billiardiers 3-0 in another third round match.
Results – Round-III: Mumbai Stars beat SPG Billiardiers 3-0 (Ashok Shandilya (-190) bt Ishpreet Singh Chadha (-100) 290(88)-165(60); Deependra Pinkyar & Nikhil Ghadge (-60) bt Shivam Arora & Vishal Gehani (-95) 160-135; Hasan Badami (-60) bt Devendra Joshi (-190) 160-176(93)).
Rrockets beat Siddhant Strikers 3-1 (Subhash Agrawal & Satbir Narula (-75) lost to Aditya Agrawal & Rajwardhan Joshi (-100) 150-200; Manav Panchal (-60) bt Loukic Pathare (-50) 160-127; Sarang Shroff (-130) bt Arun Agrawal (-190) 230-107; Dhvaj Haria (-190) bt Aditya Agrawal (-170) 290(176*)-70).
Ottomans beat Adamo Potters 3-2 (Dhruv Sitwala (-240) bt Hitesh Kotwani (-130) 340(52)-204; Amit Sapru (-60) bt Siddharth Parikh (-240) 161-296; Sanjiv Bijlani & V. Subramanian (-100) lost to Sunil Jain & Farhad Tengra (-70) 173-170; Amit Sapru (-60) lost to Hitesh Kotwani (-130) 87-230; Dhruv Sitwala (-240) bt Siddharth Parikh (-240) 340(187)-163(63).
Race for Gold beat Rajdhani Ke Aryans 3-0 (Jaiveer Dhingra (-190) bt Nalin Patel (-210) 290(158)-305(65); Mahesh Jagdale & Nishit Chandan (-70) bt Chandu Kansodaria & Rishabh Kumar (-80) 172-65; Rishabh Thakkar (-150) bt Malkeet Singh (-135) 250-134).