The Hindu : Sport : Chandra — pick of the day

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Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005

Sport

Sport

Chandra — pick of the day

By G. Viswanath

MUMBAI, JAN. 25. Manan Chandra of PSPB was the pick of the day, the last day of the group matches, in the senior National snooker championship on at the Goregaon Sports Club here on Tuesday. He scored an overwhelming victory, disposing of Kashmir's Kamal Rohomitra so fast that one wondered if his opponent had conceded the match. Chandra thrashed his rival with fluent efforts that culminated with a pocketful 92, the highest in the competition so far.

Formbook or otherwise, the basket will be left with plenty of contenders when the 64 card field gets halved and the knockout stage begins on Wednesday afternoon. This includes Devendra Joshi, who made the cut with a facile win over Sethi. The defending champion Alok Kumar had a hiccup before he got the better off Chandigarh's Sumeet Talwar while Advani punctuated his fine win over Aishwarya Arya with a smart break of 70.

Habib ousted

Earlier in the day the players had their way when they convinced the organising committee to revert to the conventional plain white ball instead of the spotted (hand) ball that was being used. The move, however, did not swing the fortunes in favour of India No. 3 Rishabh Thukral or No. 4 Rafat Habib. Habib lost to Chennai's Antim Singhi, who by virtue of a clean slate has advanced to the knockout stage. Thukral won his only match against Karnataka's D. Rajkumar, but the two who qualified from this group were qualifier S. Praveen Kumar and lucky loser Viresh Prabhu.

The results: Group A: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Sumeet Talwar (Chd) 35-58, 67-29, 71-0, 72-28. Group B: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Aishwarya Arya (M.P.) 61-7, 70 (70)-12, 86-30. Group C: Rishabh Thukral (Del) bt D. Rajkumar (Kar) 53-35, 52-11, 6-64, 56-58, 65-27; Viresh Prabhu (Mah) bt S. Praveenkumar (A.P.) 26-59, 52-8, 48-57, 55-19, 64-28. Group D: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Nishit Prakash (U.P.) 65-45, 114-9, 67-41; Antim Singhi (TN) bt Rafat Habib (Rlys) 56-28, 1-69, 64-7, 57-16. Group E: Mrinal Modak (Mah) bt Harprit Singh (HP) 37-52, 71-35, 74-29, 60-48; Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Kamal Rohomitra (J&K) 73 (59)-16, 77 (68)-6, 114 (92 c)-18.

Group F: Nikhil Ootam (Mah) bt Jaideep Manocha (J&K) 40-51, 57-43, 60-25, 53-49; Jaswinder Singh (Rlys) bt B.V.S. Murthy (Kar) 53-24, 86-0, 7-67, 40-76, 60-22. Group G: Nadim Ahmed (TN) bt Lucky Vatnani (A.P.) 46-72, 60-33, 92-9, 53-29; Anuj Uppal (Del) bt Nadeem Ahmed (TN) 77-39, 68-15, 70-48; Brijesh Damani (WB) bt Anuj Uppal (Del) 32-80, 57-24, 33-67, 73-27, 56-40, Damani bt Lucky Vatnani (AP) 65-52, 59-41, 54-9. Group H: Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt Kanishk Jhanjaria (M.P.) 64-23, 65-33, 79-42; Merchant bt Dhruv Verma (Pun) 84 (55)-45, 67-50, 98 (45, 46)-6; Dhruv bt K. Venkatesh (Rlys) 62-28, 49-37, 31-52, 87-8; Kanishk Jhanjaria (M.P.) bt Venkatesh 32-67, 88-21, 58-75, 56-46, 66-52. Group I: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Geet Sethi 65-32, 58-22, 67-4; Pradeep Kinger (Har) bt S. Das (Ori) 58-67, 60-39, 50-32, 22-48, 50-36. Group J: Dharminder Lilly (Pun) bt Farhat Tengra (Mah) 69-32, 54-35, 62-47; Marzdi Kalyaniwala (Mah) bt Manoj Verma (Bih) 61-32, 70-8, 55-12. Group K: Chirag Ramakrishnan (Mah) bt Arun Madhu (Raj) 85-8, 63-10, 75-38; Niraj Kumar (Bih) bt Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) 53-4, 32-70, 12-65, 59-13, 59-40. Group L: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys) 12-87, 70-8, 59-23, 48-40; Modit Poddar (WB) bt Deepak Kataria (Har) 87-6, 41-54, 93-38, 65-50. Group M: Omar Balsara (Mah) bt Kamaldeep Singh (Del) 44-22, 67 (58)-11, 69-24; Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt John Bosco (A.P.) 79-37, 72-40, 64-54.