The Hindu : Alok breezes past Rishabh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Alok breezes past Rishabh

By Kirti Patil

Alok Kumar in his semifinal match against Rishabh Thukral. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena

GWALIOR, FEB. 17. Three-time champion Alok Kumar played everything from mind games to safety snooker as he made his seventh final in 12 years at the 70th National snooker championship at the Jiwaji University here on Tuesday. His opponent in the final will be World champion Pankaj Advani.

While Alok needed just about two hours to vanquish Rishabh Thukral 6-0 in the best-of-11-frame match, Advani was stretched, not by his rival Rafath Habib but by the bizarre reason of presence of flies on the table. Advani, who raced to 5-0 lead, lost two frames before completing a 73-55, 79-8, 72-12, 71-43, 75-74, 0-64, 37-62, 81-36 win.

"I am very happy with the way I started the day. The start itself finished off the match I guess,'' Advani said. After a few visits for safety, Advani found an opening with a long red and using pink as his main object ball he assimilated a break of 73. Three reds were still on and Rafath went about clearing the table. Then came breaks of 79 in the second, 52 and 62 as Advani took a 4-0 lead.

"He (Advani) got such a great start. He was almost clearing the table on his first visit which really rattled me,'' Rafath said.

The break was taken at 5-0 and on resumption Advani lost his concentration. "There were one or two flies which would sit on the cue ball or the object ball and I got irritated,'' Advani said.

In Alok's case, his entry in the draw itself was contentious though no one objected after the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) hushed up the matter before it could get out of hand.

Alok and Dharminder Lilly had given a miss to the Punjab State championship and the rules say that the State's top two players of the season will represent it in the Nationals. Their names were not sent in the entry form but the BSFI, fearing the Nationals would lose its sheen without the two good players, included them in the draw.

And on Monday after winning his quarterfinal match, Alok first requested the semifinal be postponed to Wednesday, as he had to attend an interview for a post of DSP, Punjab Police. He even went to the extent of congratulating Thukral, as he would be leaving for Chandigarh for the interview. The organisers here arranged to get its interview deferred after convincing the Punjab secretary.

"I was zapped to see Alok this morning. All the while I thought that I was in the final as he (Alok) would leave for Chandigarh,'' a livid Thukral said. "I was in a totally different frame of mind and before I could get into the match mode, he just raced ahead winning one frame after other,'' said Thukral.

The results (figures in parentheses denotes breaks): semifinals: Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Rafath Habib (Rly) 73 (73)-55 (46), 79 (79)-8, 72 (52)-12, 71 (62)-43 (35), 75-74 (62), 0-64 (45), 37-62, 81 (46, 35)-36 (30); Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Rishabh Thukral (Del) 88 (50, 24)-0, 81 (21, 32)-31 (25), 64 (23)-47 (16), 63 (32)-27 (20), 72 (49)-1, 66 (20, 24)-54 (21).

Play-off for 5-8 positions: Manan Chandra (Del) bt Brijesh Damani (Ben) 4-88 (64), 71 (25, 23)-29, 49 (14, 18)-36; B.V.S. Murthy (Kar) w/o Yasin Merchant (Mah); Brijesh Damani w/o Yasin Merchant; Manan Chandra bt B.V.S. Murthy 56 (25, 15)-34 (21), 60 (14, 13)-78 (24, 16), 58 (22, 15, 17)-34 (17).

The placings: 5. Manan Chandra, 6. Murthy, 7. Damani, 8. Merchant.

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