Thukral hogs the limelight

While it was young blood scoring over experience against Subhash Agrawal in the morning, the afternoon session saw an inconsistent Ashok Shandilya help Thukral’s cause in maintaining a no-loss record halfway through the league stage.

It was a commendable effort by the 19-year-old from Delhi, who battled for a 4-3 win over Agrawal and then handed a 2-4 loss to the Asiad double gold medallist Shandilya.

Having lost the first frame rather tamely to Agrawal, Thukral rallied to pocket the next frames by convincing margins. But veteran Agrawal was never going to make it easy for the teenager,taking the fourth frame 42-6 to level the scores. From thereon it was a battle of nerves as the match boiled down to the decider. And it was Thukral who came out trumps with an edgy 77-63 final frame score.

Against Shandilya things were simpler for Thukral. Shandilya was inconsistent with his potting. While the Asiad hero struggled to adjust to the `pace’ of the table, his younger opponent showed better adaptability. Three frames down, Shandilya did try to fight his way into the game by taking the fourth and fifth frames. But it was too little too late as Thukral clinched the issue by winning the sixth frame 74-35.

Thailand’s former National champion C Praprut came in for trouble with his Group C league tie from Amit Saboo. The Indian qualifier offered some resistance against his formidable opponent before buckling to a 2-4 defeat.In a major upset, India’s Jitender Singh Dawar scored a shock-win over Peter Gilchrist. Dawar scored an engrossing 4-3 win over the Englishman last night but failed to liveupto expectations today, going down 0-4 to upcoming Manan Chandra.

Defending champion Yasin Merchant started his title campaign in style with a 4-0 drubbing of Geet Sethi in a late match yesterday.

Snooker Results (Day 3)

Group A: Yasin Merchant bt Geet Sethi 4-0 (65-22, 142-0, 92-20, 109-7); Geet Sethi bt Shakeel Ahmed 4-0 (56-7, 66-46, 68-44, 47-45); Sarang Shroff bt Mohd Shehab 4-3 (8-64, 62-7, 64-53, 5-83, 59-27, 44-56, 57-63); Yasin Merchant bt Shakeel Ahmed 4-1 (42-50, 81-14, 70-14, 78-8, 64-16)

Group B: Jitender Dawar bt Peter Gilchrist 4-3 (5-65, 47-37, 56-50, 72-30, 58-59, 5-73, 55-35); Manan Chandra bt Jitender Dawar 4-0 (73-1, 58-20, 62-37, 68-24); Alok Kumar bt Shyam Jagtiani 4-3 (34-79, 65-10, 68-30, 88-12, 45-59, 34-79)

Group C: C Praput bt Harish Gandhi 4-0 (70-40, 63-51, 59-9, 85-32); Amit Saboo bt Harish Gandhi 4-0 (69-43, 83-38, 70-26, 69-24); Siddharth Rao bt Devendra Joshi 4- (57-56, 0-60, 60-1, 72-67, 64-2); C Praprut bt Amit Saboo 32-53, 56-29, 82-37, 6-81, 25-56,23-74)

Group D: Ashok Shandilya bt Subhash Agrawal 4-0 (87-7, 69-44, 59-56, 62-40); Rishabh Thukral bt Subhash Agrawal 4-3 (44-70, 90-40, 70-30, 6-42, 72-42, 17-59, 77-63); Dharmender Lilly bt MJ Sultan 4-0 (74-28, 63-49, 70-25, 54-12); Rishabh Thukral bt Ashok Shandilya 4-2 (34-86, 70-54, 10-74, 68-42, 69-61, 67-16)