Mumbai Stars’ shine bright to emerge champions


 

Mumbai Stars rode their luck to emerge champions of the Rs 10 lakh prize-money 2nd Videocon-Billiards Premier League (BPL) 2015.

Bombay Gymkhana Vice-President, Mr. Bharat Raut is seen presenting the Billiards Premier League Champions Trophy to The victorious Mumbai Stars players and owners.

Bombay Gymkhana Vice-President, Mr. Bharat Raut is seen presenting the Billiards Premier League Champions Trophy to The victorious Mumbai Stars players and owners.

The more consistent Mumbai Stars did well to snatch a tough 3-2 victory against SPG Billiardiers in a tense and keenly contested final, which was witnessed by Chief Guest, Shri Vinod Tawde, the Honorable Minister of State (Maharashtra) for School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare, at packed Bombay Gymkhana Billiards Hall on Thursday night. The BPL 2015, organised by BSAM (Billiards & Snooker Association of Maharashtra), is ‘Powered by Videocon’ and hosted by Bombay Gymkhana.

Mumbai Stars and SPG Billiardiers both came into the big match with well-planned strategies in an attempt to outsmart each other. As a result all the frames saw some interesting battles before Mumbai Stars, who enjoyed a psychological advantage having defeated Billiardiers 3-1 in Qualifier-I a couple of day earlier, managed to reassert their dominance by pulling through the final hurdle to finish as the best team in the 8-team competition.

After the match scores were level at 2-all, an erratic Hasan Badami was fortunate to win the nerve-wracking fifth and deciding frame against seasoned pro Devendra Joshi who was unable to come to grips with himself. Badami (handicap -60) looked uncomfortable and his selection of shots was not good and in addition he made a series of costly mistakes, but was lucky not to be punished his more illustrious and experienced opponent. Former World Billiards runner-up Joshi (handicap -190) did not enjoy a good roll of the balls and could not construct any decent break and let him and the team down.

Badam rode on small breaks to accumulate his points before calmly composing a break of 14 to complete a 161-229 win to wrap up the match and trigger celebrations amongst his teammates.

Mumbai Stras started positively by winning the first frame with doubles pair of Nikhil Ghadge and Hasan Badami (-75) defeating Ishpreet Singh Chadha and C.S. Puranik (-70) 175-167. However, Mumbai Stars captain Ashok Shandilya (-190) lost to Devendra Joshi (-170) 193(65,53)-290(93) in the second frame as Billiardiers drew level. Later, Vishal Madan (-160) regained the lead for Mumbai Stars as he prevailed over Vishal Gehani (-60) by a 260-122 scoreline in the third frame. Shandilya for the second time was unsuccessful losing the fourth frame to Ishpreet (-100), who raced to a 200-189 win to tie the scores at 2-2 and force the decider.

The victorious Mumbai Stars received the crystal BPL Trophy and a handsome cash award of Rs 3.2 lakhs, while SPG Billiardiers picked up the runners-up trophy and a cash prize of Rs 2.7 lakh. Rrockets who finished third went home richer by Rs 2.2 lakh and fourth placed Adamo Potters got Rs 1.70 lakh.

Dhruv Sitwala of Ottomans who had constructed a break of 197 in the league phase, was rewarded with the Highest Break award and a Videocon gift voucher. All the players of the winning team also received Videocon gift vouchers.

Results – Final: Mumbai Stars beat SPG Billiardiers 3-2 (Nikhil Ghadge & Hasan Badami (-75) bt Ishpreet Singh Chadha & C.S. Puranik (-70) 175-167; Ashok Shandilya (-190) lost to Devendra Joshi (-170) 193(65,53)-290(93); Vishal Madan (-160) bt Vishal Gehani (-60) 260-122; Ashok Shandilya (-190) lost to Ishpreet Singh Chadha (-100) 189-200; Hasan Badami (-60) bt Devendra Joshi (-190) 161-229).