Prakash clips Advani’s wings

A fortuitous escape it was for Prakash against Devang Shah. Facing a deficit forthe major duration of the encounter, Prakash came into his own with less than ten minutes left in the clock. Stringing together breaks of 29, 33 and 20 starting from the 41st visit (the breaks, though small quantitatively), the Coimbatore cueist kept his last-year’s quarter-finalist reputation intact.

Devang Shah, on the other hand, must have been kicking himself for not capitalising on the opportunities Prakash provided. A 82 on his 13th visit giving the needed impetus, one expected Shah to prosper. The former junior national champion did manage breaks of 55 (23rd) and 40 (24th), but against the tactical end-game techniques of Prakash, Shah’s efforts ran out of time.

End-game techniques it was that saw Prakash pull off his second win too. Disregarding the hype surrounding his rival’s sensational win against veteran Subash Agarwal, Prakash started off well with a 43 on his fourth visit followed by a 33 on his next visit. But the prodigy that Advani is, the 14-year-old kept breathing down Prakash’s neckwith consistent compilations.

When Prakash came up with a 123 (on his 18th visit), an effort that brought out the Lakshmi Mills sponsored cueist’s fluency and flawless top-table billiards, Advani replied with a 72. A 66 (20) and 69 (24) by Prakash was matched by Advani’s 62 each on his 21st and 23rd visits.

It was at this stage, with the match hanging in balance, that Prakash took charge of the proceedings. He used his international experience to good effect with breaks of 69 (24) and 54 (34). It was at this very time that Advani’s form took a dip rather strangely. A streak of poor scores starting with the 24th visit, combined with Prakash’s increasing confidence, took the match out of Advani’s reach.

Bhaskar, Joshi advance: Meanwhile, Alok Kumar and Yasin Merchant, both from group A, Devendra Joshi from group B and B Bhaskar from group D booked their berth in the knockout stage notching their third consecutive wins in their five-man groups.

Alok and Yasin will face-off on the morrow to decidethe group A winner, while Bhaskar will take on, rather warily, Rupesh Shah who came up with a massive 383 against Habibullah.

Results

Group A: Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Shahid Rizvi (UP) 858-280, Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt KK Khanna (JK) 866-291, Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt Rizvi 1205-241, Alok Kumar (Pun) w/o Anil Sharma (Har).

Group B: IH Manudev (Kar) bt Subash Sood (Del) 608-442, Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Vishal Abrol (JK) 1035-193, Subash Sood (Del) bt S Mumtaz Ali (Bih) 641-380.

Group C: Md Asim (WB) bt Lalit (Har) 747-336, Dharmendar Lilly (Pun) w/o N Subba Rao (AP).

Group D: Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt SM Habibullah (TN) 942-216, B Bhaskar (Kar) bt Ram Gopal Sood (HP) 1151-141.

Group E: Subash Agarwal (Rlys) w/o Aditya Dube (MP), Prem Prakash bt Devang Shah (Mah) 462-447, Prem Prakash (TN) bt Pankaj Advani (Kar) 727-596.

Group F: Druv Sitwala (Mah) bt AR Azeem (Ker) 590-406, Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Shyam Jagtinai (Rlys) 765-478.

Group G: Varun Taneja (Rlys)w/o Achint Verma (Pun), Manoj Kothari (WB) bt Sanjay Bisht (UP) 1076-281, Aminul Haque (Ori) w/o Achint Verma (Pun).

Group H: ME Jokhi (Guj) bt JS Dawar (Mah) 493-474, JS Dawar bt S Sen (Ori) 600-407, Amit Sharma (Del) bt ME Jokhi 698-440, S Sen w/o Rajnish Bansal (MP), Shardanand Sinha (Bih) bt S Sen (Ori) 528-457, JS Dawar w/o Rajnish Bansal (MP).