The Hindu : Sethi survives a scare

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Sethi survives a scare

By Kirti Patil

GWALIOR, FEB. 7. Erratic power supply and unconcerned organisers had an effect on all the second day's matches in the 70th National billiards championship at the Jiwaji University here on Saturday.

Though many established cueists sneaked through their matches through frequent power failures, seven time World champion Geet Sethi almost got stuck against a defiant Shyam Jagtiani.

It could have been the biggest upset of the championship. Jagtiani had the top-table position and enough time to cross over Sethi. But as power played hide and seek with mercury lamps taking extra time to reach full glow, Jagtiani missed two crucial sitters and virtually bowed out of the championship.

Sethi was also troubled by such an appalling situation, but at the end he survived, by mere 70 points. With his second win in the group `F', now reduced to four players, Sethi is through to the pre-quarterfinals.

Already the schedule had gone haywire as grim power situation gripped the city throughout the day. Sethi and Jagtiani started their match three hours behind schedule and had to spend three hours on the table as an extra hour was consumed by the intermittent power cut off.

Sethi showed his mastery in the top table game early on, composing a fabulous break of 135 in his only sixth visit. He followed that up with a 64 in the next visit and just when it seemed that the match headed for a one-sided finish, the lights went off.

"You can't maintain the rhythm in such kind of situation. Entire focus goes off with every break,'' Jagtiani said after losing the match narrowly. "There is no heating system which is making the situation worse as ball kicks unexpectedly,'' he added.

Though Sethi had taken a good lead early on, a few 20s and 40s had helped Jagtiani keep up the pace. And after Sethi made 93 in the 21st visit, he had a lead of 172 points and half-an-hour still on the clock. A resolute Jagtiani made a patient 93 in his 23rd visit, further reducing the lead. He missed an easy in-off at the top pocket which gave Sethi another chance to widen the lead.

Here Sethi showed his class with a swift 52 before missing the red at the right top pocket. Jagtiani further crawled close and was just 51 points with three minutes remaining on the clock when he missed an easy red in-off.

While Sethi struggled, the defending champion Alok Kumar made an easy work of Subrat Das on the championship table. Though centuries eluded Alok Kumar, he had breaks of 70, 95, 93, 56, 61 and 59 in his 844-245 thrashing of Das in the group `A'. Former champion Rupesh Shah also scored his second win in the same group to ensure his berth in the last 16 stage.

Also moving ahead were junior international Sourav Kothari and former champion Ashok Shandilya. Kothari was again among the centuries, scoring 143 and 168, in beating Ami Lal 781-246, in the group `D' league match while Shandilya became the first player to cross 1000 points in a two-hour-long match. Playing against Pravin Kumar, Shandilya assembled three centuries and five 50s to win 1037-260. Earlier in the day Shandilya had got past qualifier Siddharth Parikh 769-358. Parikh, the semifinalist of the last Nationals in Jammu, was no easy customer but Shandilya put him out with two centuries, 123 and 112, after having scored his first point in the twelfth visit.

The results:

Group A: Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Ajay Rehani 636-334; Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 844-245.

Group B: Dhruv Sitwala (Rly) bt A. Haque (Ori) 533-372.

Group D: Sourav Kothari (Ben) bt Amil Lal (Del) 781-246.

Group E: Ashok Shandilya (Rly) bt Pravin Kumar (TN) 1037-260; Debasish Mukherjee (Ben) bt Aswarya Arya (MP) 531-401; Ashok Shandilya bt Siddharth Parikh (Rly) 769-358.

Group F: Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Shyam Jagtiani (Rly) 521-451.

Group G: B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Rishabh Thakkar (Mah) 777-233; Farooq Ebrahim (AP) bt I. S. Malik (UP) 497-486.

Group H: Mohammed Asim (Rly) bt Vishal Madan (Rly) 507-386; Durga Prasad (AP) bt S. Mumtaz Ali (Bih) 465-431.

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