Mumbai’s Sparsh Pherwani, continued with his fine run of form and blanked his city rival Luv Boricha by a convincing 3-0 margin in a Group-F encounter in the best-of-5-frame Group-F round-robin league match of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018 and played at the Poona Club on Wednesday.
Sparsh Pherwani
Pherwani, who had earlier prevailed over Aakash Padilkar of Pune in his opening match, proved too strong for Boricha and breezed to victory with the frames scores at 75-27, 82-31 and 82-19. Sparsh, who is assured of a place in the last 16 round, has a match to play against Pune’s Suraj Rathi on Thursday.
Tahaa Khan
Another Mumbai lad Kreishh Gurbaxani produced another fighting performance to put it across his city mate Rajeev Sharma in five hotly contested frames 3-2 to record his second straight win and qualify for the knockout last 16 round. Gurbaxani, who had lost the opening league match to Abhishek Bajaj, showed great nick and grabbed his opportunities and with a timely effort of 48 managed to win a crucial fourth frame and then sailed through in the decider to complete a hard-fought 37-68, 50-35, 54-64, 76-38, 61-26 win.
Meanwhile, Pune cueist Tahaa Khan of Pune, despite suffering from fever, played with plenty of grit and gumption and managed to come out trumps by carving out a creditable 3-2 win against Abhishek Bajaj of Mumbai. In a match of fluctuating fortunes, Khan started shakily and lost the first frame, but made a strong reply in the second which he won to level scores. He once against surrendered the initiative as Bajaj snatched the third to take a 2-1 lead. A determined Khan came back fighting and grabbed the fourth before compiling a crafted break of 40 to win the fifth and complete a well-deserved 30-67, 63-31, 31-65, 66-33 and 68-41 victory.
Shivam Arora of Pune and Pankaj Khatri of Nashik, both registered their second successive wins and are assured of progressing to the pre-quarter-final round.
In an all-Pune Group-B encounter, Arora came up with another impressive performance to outclass Ashwin Palnitkar winning in three straight frames 3-0 at the Poona Club on Wednesday. Potting quite consistently Arora was in complete control and raced to a 59-19, 61-52 and 81-26 win. He had earlier defeated Siddhesh Mulay of Chiplun 3-1.
The Nashik cueist Khatri, who had defeated Mumbai’s talented youngster Harmehr Mago 3-2 in his opening Group-C tie yesterday, produced another spirited performance to outplay Aurangabad’s Rohan Kothare coasting to a 3-0 win. Khatri was dominant from the start and with not much of resistance from the Aurangabad cueist, he wrapped up the contest with the frame scores reading 80-21, 60-33 and 65-16.
Results – round-robin league: Group-A: Avenish Shah (Mumbai) beat Arun Kumar (Thane) 3-0 (55-47, 52-8, 58-49);
Group-B: Shivam Arora (Pune) beat Ashwin Palnitkar (Pune) 3-0 (59-19, 61-52, 81-26);
Group-C: Pankaj Khatri (Nashik) beat Rohan Kothare (Aurangabad) 3-0 (80-21, 60-33, 65-16); Pankaj Khatri (Pune) beat Harmehr Mago (Mumbai) 3-2 (61-41, 72-36, 18-67, 28-67, 65-15);
Group-F: Aakash Padalikar (Pune) beat Suraj Rathi (Pune) 3-1 (5-115(89), 67-33, 71-45, 61-44); Sparsh Pherwani (Mumbai) beat Luv Boricha (Mumbai) 3-0 (75-27, 82-31, 82-19);
Group-G: Rajeev Sharma (Mumbai) beat Abhishek Bajaj (Mumbai) 3-2 (34-65, 44-33, 45-30, 31-70, 65-45); Tahaa Khan (Pune) beat Abhishek Bajaj (Mumbai) 3-2 (30-67, 63-31, 31-65, 66-33, 68-41); Kreishh Gurbaxani (Mumbai) beat Rajeev Sharma (Mumbai) 3-2 (37-68, 50-35, 54-64, 76(48)-38, 61-26);
Group-H: Abhimanyu Gandhi (Mumbai) beat Vignesh Sanghvi (Pune) 3-2 (23-76, 0-81(65), 61-20, 53-8, 52-9);