Bhaskar upstages Alok in World billards

Balachandra Bhaskar came up with a fine performance to beat fancied Alok Kumar 623-321 for his third consecutive win in Group G and move closer to the knock-out phase in the World Billiards Championship (timed format) here Sunday.

Bhaskar, the 43-year-old from Bangalore, had two good runs of 106 and 242 to get past Alok, finalist in the 2013 Championship (points format) and 2011 Asian Billiards Champion, who thus slid to his first defeat in three outings.

Late Saturday night, Pankaj Advani, Ashok Shandilya, Devendra Joshi, Rupesh Shah and Dhruv Sitwala all recorded second straight wins to head their respective groups.

Points format champion Advani also posted tournament's highest break so far of 332, besides a 254 and 119, while drubbing England's Robin Wilson 1060-374.

Results:

Group B: Jaiveer Dhingra bt Phil Davies (ENG) 543-210. Group C: Robin Wilson (ENG) bt Arun Agarwal 871 (198, 186)-386; Pankaj Advani bt Wilson 1060 (332, 119, 254)-376; Agarwal bt Gaye Jones (ENG) 764-91. Group D: Aditya Agarwal bt Norman Whaley (ENG) 643 (105)-280. Group E: Dhvaj Haria bt Phil Mumford (ENG) 672 (178)-418 (106). Shane Bartelette (CAN) bt Sushrut Pandia 420-411. Group F: Raj Kumar Dorairaj bt Chris Taylor 524-433; Steve Brookshaw (ENG) bt Dorairaj 645-337; Siddharth Parikh bt Dorairaj 885 (119, 204)-302 (100).

Group G: Balachandra Bhaskar bt Alok Kumar 623 (106, 242)-321; Alok Kumar bt Todd Hayward (AUS) 875 (184, 158, 188)-367; Balachandra Bhaskar bt Mark Hill (ENG) 816 (170)-148. Group H: Dhruv Sitwala bt Steve Lock (ENG) 737 (142)-218. Group I: Rupesh Shah bt Andrew Draper (ENG) 1053 (246, 163, 110, 145)-117. Ian Williamson (ENG) bt S. Venkateswaran 406-262. Group J: Devendra Joshi bt Nalin Patel (ENG) 865 (128, 209, 105)-256. Group K: Sourav Kothari bt Brian Harvey (ENG) 704 (154)-386. Ashok Shandilya bt Kothari 565-461 (200); Kothari bt Aaron Davies (ENG) 806-264.