Taneja stuns Subhash

MUMBAI, JULY 2: Qualifier Varun Taneja was surprised, and so were the others as he marched his way into the knockout stage of the Alpic O...

MUMBAI, JULY 2: Qualifier Varun Taneja was surprised, and so were the others as he marched his way into the knockout stage of the Alpic Om Agrawal Billiards event at the Garware Club House today.

In a late night Group D match yesterday, Taneja stunned former National champion Subhash Agrawal with a convincing 723-400 margin. And continued with his fine display, today, to beat Mohammad Asim 646-506 for a quarter-final meeting with defending champion Geet Sethi.

Taneja was helped in his cause by Devendra Joshi as he edged past Agrawal in a tooth and nail battle earlier.

While Subhash failed to reach the last eight, younger brother Arun made up for the loss. Arun blanked out Alok Kumar’s challenge first, and then scored a comfortable victory over qualifier Chandresh Shah for a smooth transit into the quarters. Thailand’s National champion C Praput was the other Group C player to advance

The other two Groups threw no surprises. Sethi managed to maintain a clean sweep in the league after overcoming afighting Nalin Patel. A fine break of 198 saw the World champion negate a 120 point defecit. But with just a minute and a half to go, Patel almost plotted an upset with a break of 38 which ended with a missed cannon at the top of the table. He nevertheless made the quarters.

Qualifier R Thukral caused a major furore as he upset a rusty Dharmender Lilly 4-2 in a Group D snooker league tie which began later in the day. The lanky cueist from Bangalore was far from his best as he struggled to match Thukral’s enthusiasm.

Results (Day 2)

Billiards

Group A: Geet Sethi 614 (80, 71, 198) bt Nalin Patel 562 (68, 87, 116); Manoj Kothari 598 bt Antim Singhi 592 (87, 82)

Story continues below this ad

Group B: Peter Gilchrist 725 (84, 79, 219) bt Ashok Shandilya 605 (93, 80, 87, 99); Shyam Jagtiani 692 (61, 66) bt Michael Ferreira 385

Group C: C Praput bt Chandresh Shah 650-438; Arun Agrawal bt Alok Kumar 789-495; C Praput 647 (69, 85) bt Alok Kumar 497 (77, 76); Arun Agrawal 702 bt Chandresh Shah 539

Group D:Varun Taneja bt Subhash Agrawal 723-400; Devendra Joshi bt Mohd Asim 889-350; Devendra Joshi 688 (70, 7, 64) bt Subhash Agrawal 644 (98, 79); Varun Taneja 646 (74, 68, 55, 52) bt Mohd Asim 506 (61, 47, 54)

Snooker

Group A: Sarang Shroff bt Shakeel Ahmed 4-1 (53-39, 76-13, 84-28, 45-78, 99-61)

Story continues below this ad

Group B: Shyam Jagtiani bt manan Chandra 4-3 (65-34, 72-45, 53-73, 60-63, 55-45, 41-69, 80-31)

Group C: Siddharth Rao bt Amit Saboo 4-2 (52-27, 41-72, 66-22, 25-83, 64-11, 68-61)

Group D: R Thukral bt Dharmender Lilly 4-2 (63-52, 33-64, 19-61, 65-39, 54-52, 67-12)