Abhimanyu Gandhi of Otters Club enjoyed a good roll of the balls and produced a couple of substantial breaks to charge past Pankaj Basantani of Ulhasnagar by four frames to two in the best-of-7-frame semi-final match of the Khar Gymkhana Open Handicap Snooker Tournament 2018, and played at the Khar Gymkhana billiards room.
Otters Club’s Abhimanyu Gandhi defeated Ulhasnagar’s Pankaj Basantani 4-1 in a semi-final match of the Khar Gymkhana Open Handicap Snooker Tournament 2018
Playing with a low handicap of +10, Gandhi quickly adjusted to the table and stamped his class with some brilliant efforts to brush aside the fight from his Ulhasnagar opponent Basantani (+33). Gandhi exhibited excellent potting touch and fired in breaks of 41 and 40 in the first frame and then compiled an exact half century 50 run in winning the second to take a 2-0 lead.
Basantani, who has had great run in the competition showed his fighting side by taking the third to cut the deficit before Gandhi won a close fourth frame to stay in front (3-1). Basantani continued to fight and won the fifth to narrow the lead (2-3), but later he could not stop Gandhi from finishing off the contest. Gandhi constructed a neat break of 57 in the sixth frame to complete a 95-42, 97-34, 33-80, 72-67, 68-81 and 107-34 victory.
In the second semi-final, Malabar Hill Club’s Manan Shah (+45) scored a surprising 4-0 win against Khar Gymkhana’s Sparsh Pherwani (+20), who was clearly not at his best.
Shah starting with a 25 points advantage potted steadily and with small rtidy runs managed to put it across the home favourite Pherwani in straight frames. The Malabar Hill cueist coasted to a 92-82, 104-31, 101-84 and 90-51 win and a shot at the title.
Results – semi-final: Abhimanyu Gandhi (Otters Club, +10) beat Pankaj Basantani (Ulhasnagar, +33) 4-2 (95(41,40)-42, 97(50)-34, 33-80, 72-67, 68-81, 107(57)-34).
Manan Shah (MHC, +45) beat Sparsh Pherwani (Khar Gym, +20) 4-0 (92-82, 104-31, 101-84, 90-51).