The Hindu : Sport : Joshi and Pandya rally to win

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Joshi and Pandya rally to win

Sports Reporter

R. Girish edges Sourav Kothari in a seven-frame thriller

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

HOUDINI ACT: Devendra Joshi came back from three frames down to put it past Shahbaz Adil Khan in the ASCA snooker invitation tournament on Friday.

Chennai: Devendra Joshi and Rishab Pandya staged escape acts to come from three frames down to clinch 4-3 wins over Shahbaz Adil Khan and Shravan Mohta here on Friday to clinch berths in the quarterfinals of the Alliance Group-ASCA snooker tournament.

Joshi looked ill at ease in the first three frames, potting the cue ball thrice in the first frames, conceding three more fouls in the second, and missing a number of pots in the third. Shahbaz combined steady potting with neat safety play to take a 3-0 lead.

Getting an opening early in the fourth, Joshi made his first decent break of the game, 29 points that put him ahead in a frame for the first time.

Finally at ease with his potting, he finished it with a 71 break. Up 40-0 in the fifth and handed an easy red into the side pocket, he took it 107-0 with a 67 break.

Joshi took the tight sixth with a masterclass of under-pressure snooker.

Down 26-50 with only blue, pink and yellow to go, Joshi placed the cue ball in between the top left pocket and the pink, the blue next to the right side cushion. Shahbaz conceded two fouls, to bring Joshi back on track. He finished off the frame with aplomb, making the three final pots look far simpler than they were. Shahbaz looked defeated even before the final frame was halfway done, losing it 11-79 in the end.

Relentless

Earlier, Shravan Mohta was relentless in his first three frames. Losing focus in the next three frames, he made crucial errors, beginning early in the fourth by leaving the cue ball among the reds after a miss, giving Rishab an easy pot to begin with a 56 break to get him on the road to recovery.

Shravan snookered Rishab repeatedly in the final frame, after trailing 11-49 early. The tactic paid off, and Shravan’s score inched to 52-55 with only 12 coming off his own cue. But he continued missing his pots, and with the number of obstacles on the table dwindling, Rishab finally took the frame 86-52, the match ending a minute short of three hours.

In a late match, R. Girish edged Sourav Kothari in a seven-frame thriller, dashing Sourav’s hopes of revenge for his group stage defeat.

The results: Pankaj Advani bt Faisal Khan 79-18, 68-51, 88-39, 97-0; Rishab Pandya bt Shravan Mohta 43-76 , 52-65, 3-108, 79-17, 56-8, 58-43, 86-52; Rupesh Shah bt Rafath Habib 26-79, 80-0, 73-25, 0-79, 121-1, 134-0; Alok Kumar bt Ashok Shandilya 84-40, 25-57, 70-29, 85-7, 13-73 , 9-84 , 64-0; Manan Chandra bt M. C. Manoj 7-84, 70-21, 91-29, 49-23, 79-49; Devendra Joshi bt Shahbaz Adil Khan 23-86, 34-68, 4-66, 112-65, 107-0, 54-50, 79-11; Geet Sethi bt Prem Prakash 74-73, 68-0, 58-70, 65-11, 56-50; R. Girish bt Sourav Kothari 70-11, 2-75, 38-86, 0-139, 51-29, 69-50, 66-32.

Quarterfinal line-up: Pankaj Advani v Rishab Pandya; Rupesh Shah v Alok Kumar; Manan Chandra v Devendra Joshi; Geet Sethi v R. Girish.

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