The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Bhaskar bounces back

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Bhaskar bounces back

By Avinash Nair

PUNE, FEB 22. The smile was back on B. Bhaskar's face. Having lost out narrowly to Kyaw Oo of Myanmar in a thrilling match last evening, Bhaskar looked despondent and slept fitfully. But with two convincing victories on Tuesday and a good finish in group C was his for the asking in the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra-organised fourth Asian billiards Championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana hall.

"I am feeling good. The hand-eye coordination was there and the stroke making was fluent," said Bhaskar after his 3-0 (100-10, 101-7, 102-27) win over Sri Lanka's veteran W.A. J. Weerasinghe in the morning and then came back to subdue the aspirations of young Rishab Thakkar at 102-22, 101-0, 45-101, 101-38, with notable breaks of 68 and 33 unfinished in the second and 41 and 31 unfinished in the fourth.

In another good contest between two Indians, former World and Asian champion Ashok Shandilya looked far from impressive but nevertheless capitalised on an opening to quell the challenge from another youngster Sourav Kothari. Shandilya won 102-14, 7-102, 100-91, 100-10.

Sourav looked in good touch. Sharing the first two games, it was Sourav who inched close with a steady compilation in the third. However a red in-off miss ended his streak but led 89-10. Shandilya, however, could not do much either and Sourav had the table. But after a canon, the ball rolled badly and the ill-positioned Sourav just messed it all up and the `gift' saw Shandilya garner the points needed to wrap up the frame.

In the fourth there was a definite spring in Shandilya's steps as he came up with an unfinished 85 to heave a sigh of relief.

"I don't know what's happening, some poor play, I guess. Hopefully things will pick up in the next couple of days," said Shandilya after the match.

Sourav, however, came flat in the afternoon session and lost badly to Thailand's C. Praput 1-3 and with it went whatever little hopes the Kolkata lad had about progressing in the championship.

Aung San on song

Aung San Oo, who is credited with the only upset of the event thus far after his 3-2 verdict over Shandilya, ensured himself the top spot in group C with a fluent 100-40, 100-9, 100-54 win over Pakistan's Imran Shahzad.

Imran, the 29-year-old, scored a scintillating 3-2 win over the tall Lim Jia Sheng (Singapore) late last night. Imran had won 101-49, 75-100, 100-60, 34-100, 100-98.

Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi, the hot favourites to play the final, came back to continue their good showing and score 3-0 victories over Tommy Ang (Singapore) and K.H. Sirisoma (Sri Lanka), respectively.

Tomorrow's last round of league matches will throw up the qualifiers for the quarterfinals, with top two from each group making it to the last eight and the last two spots being filled by three third place finishers in each group playing on a round robin basis to determine the other two.

The results (Indians otherwise mentioned): Group A: Devendra Joshi bt K.H. Sirisoma (SL) 101-31, 100-33, 101-50; S. Thawat (Thai) bt Khin Mg oo (myanmar) 100-65, 100-71, 43-101, 100-2; Geet Sethi bt K.H. Sirisoma (SL) 101-42, 100-73, 101-0; S. Thawat (Thai) bt Wan Su Lee (Korea) 101-49, 100-5, 101-23.

Group B: B. Bhaskar bt W.A.J. Weerasinghe (SL) 100-10, 101-7, 101-27; Pankaj Advani bt Tommy Ang (Sing) 101-2, 100-17, 101-0; Kyaw Oo (Myan) bt Tommy Ang (Sin) 100-46, 100-45, 85-100, 102-32; B. Bhaskar bt Rishab Thakkar 102-22, 101-0, 45-101, 101-38.

Group C: C. Praput (Thai) bt Seung Chil Park (Kor) 102-29, 100-8, 100-15; Ashok Shandilya bt Sourav Kothari 102-14, 7-102, 100-91, 100-10; Aung San Oo (Myan) bt Lim Jia Sheng (Sing) 101-27, 101-50, 102-59; C. Praput (Thai) bt Saurav Kothari 49-100, 101-59, 100-56, 100-45; Aung San Oo (Myan) bt Imran Shahzad (Pak) 100-40, 100-9, 100-54.

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