Chandra shrugs off Shroff

Shroff was at his creative best, but at his squandering worst too simultaneously, when he handed over the chance to Chandra to clear the table in the second frame. An attempt to pot the red on the rebound, off one cushion to boot, drew appreciation from the discerning for Shroff’s faculties. Chandra too applauded the attempt, but must have inwardly thanked Shroff and cleared the table till blue, the three reds fetching him two blues and a green to race 2-0 ahead.

Early in the third frame, Shroff committed a foul “lying on the green ball” to open up the flood gates for Chandra to take thelead. He later sold the brown, helping his junior opponent to a 3-0 lead in the match.

In the fourth, with the score reading 43-54, Shroff shrugged off a foul on the green, attempting to bang the pink into the top-left pocket, faltered to hand over the match.

Joshi began his match against Shah in style compiling a 44 (with four blacks and an yellow) to win the first frame, but there ended his success.

Shah levelled the score winning the second and took the lead pocketing the third before coming up with a 55 (one black, three blues, one brown, one green and the colours) to win the fourth. That 55 looked pittance compared to what Shah came up with in the fifth frame.

Results

Senior Snooker (prelimnary league): Group A: Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Manan Nagpal (Har) 94-12, 71-48, 40-68, 67-28, 69-28; BVS Murthy (Kar) bt Kamal Chawla (MP) 70-32, 44-70, 86-1, 35-71, 60-44, 56-16.

Group B: Manan Chandra (Del) bt Mohammed Asim (WB) 48-73, 59-44, 68-60, 57-28, 53-43; Manan Chandra (Del) btSarang Shroff (Mah) 58-55, 72-35, 67-38, 64-55.

Group C: Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Amish Parikh (Bih) 72-33, 53-47, 79-28, 92-22; Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Devendra Joshi (Mah) 31-79, 66-15, 66-43, 61-15, 91-0.

Group E: Shakil Ahmed (WB) bt Sanjay Bisht (UP) 60-52, 59-12, 59-46, 71-2; Siddarth Rao (TN) bt Sanjay Bisht (UP) 68-8, 85-9, 85-23, 23-53, 91-1.

Group G: K Ranjan (TN) bt Himanshu Bisht (UP) 54-34, 92-6, 51-47, 96-17; Omar Balsara (Mah) bt S Sen (Ori) 65-22, 66-35, 54-62, 72-24, 62-37.

Group H: Antim Singhi (Rlys) bt Pankaj Sood (HP) 79-21, 75-46, 77-13, 21-69, 91-0; Siddarth Anand (Del) bt NK Sharma (Raj) 68-1, 55-49, 63-23, 67-35.

Junior Billiards (first round): Vishal Madan (Mah) bt JI Wills (Ker) 516-319; Raghav Baweja (Har) w/o Nitin Agarwal (MP). Second round: Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Jai Ganesh (TN) 661-582. Pre-quarterfinals: M Senthil (TN) bt Sandip Batla (Del) 466-436; Jaswinder Singh (Raj) bt Shivananda Sinha (Bih) 456-359; Pankaj Advani(Kar) bt Raghav Baweja (Har) 1121-300; Vishal Madan (Mah) bt Amit Sharma (Del) 501-473.