The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Advani loses a pulsating match

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 30, 2005

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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Advani loses a pulsating match

Michael Ferreira

Bangkok: A late night practice session on Thursday saw Pankaj Advani all geared up to make his last-16 encounter against Pakistan's Saleh Mohammed in the Sangsom Asian snooker championship a repeat of his spectacular World championship success. But in a pulsating match that had the spectators spellbound, Pankaj crashed to a 3-4 defeat in the face of a deadly combination of an opponent who handled the pressure better, a touch of bad luck in the closing stages and a loss of form at crunch-time.

Over-confident

In fact Pankaj should have lost 2-4, but a bit of over-confident swaggering by Saleh in the fifth, when he thought he had the match all done and dusted, allowed the Indian to claw his way back from 46-63 on the pink to force the decider. Saleh was a trifle fortunate to take the first frame on the black after Pankaj led 58-51 in the brown, but the latter rammed in a 46 to take the second.

A run of 33 and 14 points gained from fouls in the third saw Pankaj open up a 2-1 lead. But Saleh stormed back in the fourth and added the fifth with a 49 after Pankaj missed a standard long red. The sixth should have been Saleh's but he kept missing balls through sheer carelessness. With Pankaj also missing easy chances, the frame and the match were slipping away at 59-36 on the brown and looked all over at 63-45 on the pink. Then Saleh astoundingly went in-off and Pankaj grabbed the lifeline to pot pink and black for 3-3. However, though Pankaj took an initial 33-1 lead in the decider, the Pakistani held firm, an error by Pankaj on a vital blue giving him the chance to construct a 37 which ultimately proved decisive.

Stirring win

Playing at the same time, Manan Chandra gladdened Indian hearts with a stirring 4-3 victory over Chan Kwok Ming who had been re-seeded 8. Manan jumped into a 3-1 lead and had a severe test of character when Chan grimly closed to parity but came through admirably to win the decider 72-52.

Also playing at the same time, the pencil-slim five-time Chinese national champion Jin Long, recovering from a 0-2 deficit, stunned the partisan crowd into silence with a 4-3 win over local hero Nittiwat Kanjanasri, re-seeded no 1. Completing the four pre-quarterfinal matches played in Friday's first session, Keith Boon (Singapore) coasted to a 4-0 win over Pakistan's former world champion Yousuf Mohammed.

Keith does not have quite the same quality of the others who were on display, but Yousuf, who tries gamely to make up for fading firepower with implacable determination, could find no answers to the questions posed by the Singaporean, himself a former Asian snooker runner-up.

Janthad shocked

In the second session of the day featuring the other four pre-quarterfinal matches, Pramual Janthad re-seeded 7, was shocked by three-time Chinese national champion Cai Jianzhong 4-1. However, Kobkit Palanjin, Noppadon Sangnil and Issara Kachaiwong had an easy passage to the quarters, beating Ng Ann Seng 4-2, Mohammed Jokar 4-1 and Mustafa Shebab 4-1 respectively.

Kobkit was the most impressive of the Thais, with breaks of 70 and a 51 clearance in the first frame, 58 and a 65 clearance in the third, 65 in the fourth and a clinching 74 in the fifth. Noppadon had runs of 57 and 78. Uncertainties of sport apart and the outstanding showing of Jin Long notwithstanding, one would struggle to pick a player from any other country lifting the title.

Friday's heavy schedule of matches meant that the eight pre-quarterfinal matches were played in the first two sessions, with the four best-of-nine-frames quarterfinal matches being played in the last session of the day.

The quarterfinal line-up: Manan Chandra vs. Jin Long; Saleh Mohammed vs. Keith Boon; Kobkit Palajin vs. Noppadon Sangnil; Issara Kachaiwong vs. Cai Jianzhong.

Pre-quarterfinal results: Manan Chandra bt Chan Kwok Ming (HK) 4-3 (65-8, 77-71, 60-64, 67-6, 78, 24-71, 72-52); Pankaj Advani lost to Saleh Mohammed (Pak) 3-4 (58-68, 64-3, 85-23, 31-72, 5-85, 65-63, 33-68); Keith Boon (Sin) bt Mohammed Yousuf 4-1 (80-37, 5-53, 83-8, 70-21, 83(67)-33); Kobkit Palanjin (Tha) bt Ng Ann Seng (Mal) 4-2 (121(70, 51)-0, 37-78, 4-64, 128 (58, 65)-5, 88(65)-47, 74(74)-1); Noppadon Sangnil (Tha) bt Mohammed Jokar (UAE) 4-2 (38-69, 72(57)-19, 66-9, 123(78)-0, 69-38); Cai Jianzhong (Chn) bt Pramual Janthad 4-1 (70-30, 56-42, 85(54)-28, 49-64, 61-32); Issara Kachaiwong (Tha) bt Mustafa Shebab (UAE) 4-1 (75-20, 19-88, 79-19, 65-26, 63-56).

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