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Journalism of Courage
The two-time defending champion fell to the least dangerous of the opponents,while last years runner-up scorched the table with a double win. Wednesday was a day of extremes for Dharmender Lily and Manan Chandra. While Lily went down 17-16 to Delhis Vijay Goel,Chandra won both his matches against Alok Kumar and Vijay Goel respectively and is a step away from the title that has now eluded him twice in a row.
Chandra won a closely contested match 21-20 against Kumar and then rolled over Goel 22-15 to sit on the top of the semi-final league table of the 3rd National Carombole Championship. Interestingly,at one time it had seemed that after Lily,Chandra would be the other big upset of the day. But Chandra held on to survive the scare. Kumar was running away with the match,having build up a lead of 5 points close to the halfway mark. But while leading at 10-5,he fouled to give away a point,and then Chandra hit back with a three-point break to cut back the lead to one at the halfway mark.
Kumar then had a two-point cushion till the 40th visit,but Chandra pulled ahead in the contest after the 45th visit to the table and went on to build up a four-point lead by the 55th. But Kumar wasnt going to be held back easily. Trailing by five points,he hit a four-point break to cut the lead to just one. That,however,was as far as he could go,finally losing by one point.
Talking about the close contest,Chandra said he had enough time for a comeback. Id time as we were playing 60 visits today. Before the interval I cut back the lead to just one with a three-point break and I was comfortable from then on, he said of his first match.
Earlier in the day,Lily kept fighting till the end till the last visit of the table to be exact and came close to dashing Goels hopes. Down by two points,Lily scored one and then missed another by a whisker to tie the contest. It wasnt as if he (Goel) was playing superbly. I wasnt getting enough openings to score, Lily said. Just a day earlier, Lily had called Goel the least experienced of the semi-final lot.
After seeing off the defending champion,Goel was again on an upset trail as he led Chandra. But it wasnt to be. Once ahead,Chandra never looked like losing his stranglehold on the match.
To be honest,I was tired after having to play back-to-back matches. Also,after going in the lead I got a bit complacent, he added.
Goel was happy to play his part even though he was nowhere near his best as he was in the days first contest. Manan plays quick breaks and so is a tough opponent to play against, Goel said.
Wednesdays results: Vijay Goel (Del) bt Dharmender Lily (Pun) 17-16,Manan Chandra (BPCL) bt Alok Kumar (ONGC) 21-20 and Manan Chandra bt Vijay Goel 22-15
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