Advani bests Murphy; Bennie withers Chandra

A freak red in-off was how Advani began the match, but found his bearings mid way through the first frame, turning a 22-31 deficit to a 52-31 lead and then making the best of a foul by his rival to clean the table till the blue.

Murphy returned with a vengeance pocketing the second frame with a 56 followed by a 25. And continued his good form in the third by racing ahead 51-15. But an ambitious attempt to retrieve a snooker, resulting in a foul and miss on the pink, gave Advani the opening which the Frank Anthony Public School boy devoured to take a 2-1 lead.

Murphy’s run, a flash in the pan, by now, had ended as Advani, realising his rival’s struggle with his potting, used a safety-first tactic. With that plan, helped by Murphy’s consistent decline in form, keeping him in good stead, Advani emerged a run away winner in the next two frames.

BENNIE SPARKLES: Scotsman Steven Bennie, with two century breaks already under his belt, struck form right when it mattered.

A fortuitous blue helped him nullify Manan Chandra’s 1-0 lead, but was in superb flow in the third, while compiling a 109. Nine blacks, a pink and five blues adorned the Perth cueist’s compilation, which unfortunately ended with the yellow kicking back from the bottom-right pocket.

Bennie compensated for that miss in the next frame with a peach of a 114 (with seven blacks, a pink and four blues along with all the colours). Demoralised by those mammoth breaks, Manan surrendered the fifth frame rather meekly.

LEE SHOCKS JOHN: The morning began with Englishman Andy Lee, regaining his chances of topping pool `G’ by blanking a high-flying Welshman David John.

Results: Pool A: Eissa MAA Hindi (UAE) bt Khor Tot Siong (Mal) 4-1. Pankaj Advani (Ind) bt Robert Murphy (RoI) 4-1 (68-35, 5-81, 61-51, 70-23, 74-37).

Pool B: Alistor Wilson (NI) bt Willie Florence (NZ) 4-2. Md. Atiq (Pak) bt Mohammed SE Mella (Egy) 4-1. Luke Fisher (Eng) bt Jaswinder Singh (Ind) 4-3 (46-64, 82-0, 53-61, 84-2, 92-29, 10-64, 88-0). TJ Dowling (RoI) bt Chris Batchelor (Wales) 4-2.

Pool C: Brendon O’Donoghue (RoI) bt Mohd. Al Sada (Qat) 4-0. Ian Barber (Aus) bt Pasi Jantti (Fin) 4-0. Wayne Belmont (NZ) bt Mustafa Ally Atta (Egy) 4-3. Steven Bennie (Scot) bt Manan Chandra (India) 4-1 (29-61, 75-63, 109-0, 114-22, 69-15).

Pool D: Kamal Chawla (Ind) bt Ahmed Md. Khalifa (UAE) 4-0 (59-1, 79-37, 67-33, 59-26). Sean O’Neill (NI) bt Gerrit Bij de Leij (Ned) 4-1. Mahesh Jagdale (Ind) bt Seinal Warnakula (SL) 4-0 (75-17, 57-8, 89-18, 55-41). Tommy Ang (Sing) bt Johan D’Hondt (Bel) 4-2.

Pool E: Rory McCarrell (NI) bt Sohail Jairaj (Ind) 4-0 (91-14, 82-21, 89-0, 76-11. Serge Das (Bel) bt Bobby Cruickshanks (Scot) 4-0. Stephen Wellesby (Eng) bt Mohd. Bin Hassan (Mal) 4-3.

Pool F: Roy Stolk (Ned) bt Tero Suvanto (Fin) 4-0. Rishab Thukral (Ind) bt Kevin Tang (Sing) 4-1 (59-23, 65-44, 53-67, 69-52, 96-35). Daithi Whelan (RoI) bt Ngoh Min Choon (Mal) 4-0.

Pool G: Andy Lee (Eng) bt David John (Wales) 4-0 (55-27, 68-38, 74-55, 63-53). Rene van Rijsberg (Ned) bt Harit D Parikh (Ind) 4-1 (73-9, 80-34, 29-53, 75-20, 58-40).

Pool H: Ben Farnworth (NZ) bt Ritesh Shah (Ind) 4-3 (42-66, 32-97, 67-5, 48-67, 60-48, 64-57, 100-1). Jimmy Cheung (HK) bt Imrahim Sumt (Egy) 4-0.