Multani concedes match

Even Shandilya confirmed that the ball was drifting at the top of the table. 8220;The ball was drifting to one corner of the table and it was very difficult to play the shots,8221; he said.

The organisers were of the view that Multani should have complained at the start of the match. But by the time he conceded, it was too far into the match and Shandilya could have objected had the tie been declared null and void.

Chapman in semis: In another quarter-final match, England8217;s world number three Roxton Chapman defeated Arun Agrawal in the make-shift Billiards Hall venue. Chapman won 1167-569. The Englishman8217;s 275 on his 12th visit, followed by 107 25th and 121 38th were the highlights of his convincing win. He now awaits the winner of Joshi-Agrawal tie.

In the Multani-Shandilya match, while the bespectacled Gujarat cueist had breaks of 64 in his tenth and 12th visits, Shandilya had no significant break till his 18th visit when he added 100 points to his tally. Still, Shandilya continued to lead throughout thanks to a number of small breaks.A break of 84 in the 23rd visit brought Multani to within five points of Shandilya, but thereafter, the last eight visits just aggregated 31 points for Multani as Shandilya widened the lead with a 130 in his 28th visit.