IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani was in a class of his own and recorded an authoritative win against Singapore’s former world champion Peter Gilchrist 1201-807, after enjoying a commanding 576-311 points lead at the end of first one-and-half hour session, quarter-final match of the Cricket Club of India organized Rs 10 lakh prize-money CCI Classic Invitation Billiards (time format) Championship 2023 at the CCI Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall on Tuesday evening.
Advani, the proud winner of 25 world titles, struck the balls with pinpoint accuracy and stitched together breaks of 83 and 96 before constructing a triple century run of 376 to take a firm grip of the contest. He later compiled breaks of 156, 181 and196 points to maintain the big lead. Gilchrist who had a solitary century break of 132 before break finally hit form on resumption and made a break of 317, but it was a little too late and he had to bow out.
Meanwhile, Gujarat challengers Rupesh Shah and Dhvaj Haria were both on a roll and also stormed into the semi-finals. The former world champion and Indian No. 4 Shah played steadily and with clever tactics stunned India No. 2 Dhruv Sitwala of Mumbai as he cruised to a 813-445 victory after taking a sizable 417-245 points lead at the break. On a side table, the left-handed Haria was high on confidence and played consistently to storm past an off-form Ishpreet Singh of Mumbai by recording a 1101-635 points margin of victory after racing to 579-217 lead at the interval.
Meanwhile, Shah, who had lost to Sitwala in the semi-finals of the National billiards champions last December, played with plenty of determination.
Although Sitwala started with a break of 101 points to grab the initiative as he marginally raced a 100 plus points lead, Shah came roaring back and carefully constructed a break of 373 points to turn things around and take complete control. Thereafter, he played smartly to maintain the lead and with another run of 138 wrapped up the contest. On Wednesday, Shah will clash with Advani and the winner will advance to Thursday’s final.
Meanwhile, Haria showed excellent touch and compiled three double century breaks of 241, 253 and 210 to outshine Ishpreet Singh, who is basically a snooker exponent, but is capable of putting up a fight against the best in the business. The lanky Gujarat player led from the start and did not look back as he waltzed to victory. Haria will clash with England’s Rob Hall in Wednesday’s semi-final.
The Englishman Hall fought back to overcome Kolkatta’s Sourav Kothari 873-603 after trailing 351-436 at the short interval.
Results – Quarter-finals: Rupesh Shah bt Dhruv Sitwala 813[373, 138]-445[101, 74, 80].
Dhvaj Haria bt Ishpreet Singh 1101[241, 253, 210, 78]-635[75, 74].
Pankaj Advani bt Peter Gilchrist 1201[83, 96, 376, 156, 181, 196]-807[71, 132, 317, 106, 83].
Rob Hall bt Sourav Kothari 873[142, 107, 91, 94, 83]-603[216, 139, 103].