Hasan Badami and Amee Kamani hogged the spotlight recording 117 unfinished and 88 respectively in winning their best-of-7-frame first round matches of the Rs 12.5 lakh prize-money CCI Snooker Classic 2024, organised by the Cricket Club of India.
Playing on his home table, the CCI cueist Badami was in peak form and great touch as he breezed past Aditya Agrawal racing to a 4-0 win. Badami warmed up nicely with a run of 45 in the first frame and then uncorked the massive effort, which is currently the highest in the tournament, to complete a 65-20, 123-0, 75-37 and 52-7 victory, at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall on Monday.
Earlier, in the day Amee Kamani of Rajasthan, a former multiple-time Indian National women snooker champion and former World women champion showed amazing touch and enjoyed a good roll of the balls to defeat seasoned Mumbai cusist Manav Panchal 4-2. Amee, the lone women player in the fray, signed off in style constructing an 88 break to wrap up the contest with the frame scores reading 54-47, 6-63, 69-44, 22-50, 55-42 and 96-16 in her favour.
Joining Badami in the second round was three other CCI cueist Nikhil Ootam, Kanishq Jhanjaria and Anurag Bagri, all also comfortably winning their respective first round matches.
Ootam showed his class of yore in defeating Nikhil Ghadge 4-0 (61-51, 75-55, 73-5, and 67-3), Jhanjaria tamed Abdur Rehman 4-0 (69-20, 52-25, 72-9, and 61-51). Earlier, Bagri got the better of Aarav Sanchetti 4-1 (52-20, 62-24, 60-10, 31-66, and 62-11).
Results – Round 1: Faisal Khan bt Ajinkya Yelve 4-0 (45-41, 69-17, 107(60,46)-16, 84(64)-31); Amee Kamani bt Manav Panchal 4-2 (54-47, 6-63, 69-44, 22-50, 55-42, 96(88)-16); Nikhil Ootam bt Nikhil Ghadge 4-0 (61-51, 75-55, 73(50)-5, 67-3); Rrahul Sachdev bt Gaurav Deshmukh 4-2 (60-22, 67(59)-18, 64-62, 31-76, 41-77, 66-28); Shahbaz Khan bt Rajeev Sharma 4-1 (61-53, 37-77, 73-11, 56-40, 73-47); Kanishq Jhanjaria bt Abdur Rehman 4-0 (69-20, 52-25, 72-9, 61-51); Hasan Badami bt Aditya Agrawal 4-0 (65(45)-20, 123(117*)-0, 75-37, 52-7); Nitesh Madan bt Shahyan Razmi 4-1 (75(73)-8, 73(53)-45, 76(76)-16, 43-63, 68-43); Anurag Bagri bt Aarav Sanchetti 4-1 (52-20, 62-24, 60-10, 31-66, 62-11);