RKG snooker champs win despite Kothari's defeat in BSL

RKG Snooker Champs beat City Knights 4-3 despite ace cueist Sourav Kothari losing his 15 Red singles tie to Himanshu Jain in the round robin of the Bengal Snooker League (BSL) here on Tuesday.

On the other hand, Cue Magicians' Asian Games silver medallist Brijesh Damani thrashed Digvija Kadian of Pappu Penguin but still saw his side face defeat.

While Kothari lost to Jain 49-61, Damani pummelled Kadian 90-8 but lost both his doubles matches against Dharminder Lilly and Shoaib Khan 13-67 and Digvijay Kadian and Lilly 01-76 with Shakil Ahmed and Anuj Uppal as partners respectively.

In between, Damani's singles win and first doubles loss, Lilly beat Anuj Uppal 101-01 but Uppal and Arshad Zama made it 2-2 with a 47-01 triumph.

In the next two rubbers, Zama restored Magicians' lead to 3-2 but Penguins' Dhruv Agarwal beat Kingshuk Saha and then Damani and Anuj lost in the doubles to lose 3-4.

For RKG, Manish Jain beat Manan Chandra 54-26 to make it 1-1 after Kothari's loss.

RKG then won back-to-back matches in the doubles to make it 3-1.

City Knights pegged one back as Benay Agarwala lost to Rajesh Tulsian 58-65 but Saif Khan got the better of Rohan Gandhi 43-09 in a dominant display in the next rubber to seal the deal.

Kothari had another setback when he and Anil Poddar lost to Himanshu Manan Chandra 29-85 but they had already settled the match.

In another match, Rockets defeated Alpha Cueists 4-3 while Pappu Penguin beat Cue Magicians in an identical result.

Each team has to play nine league matches and the top four will move to next round where No. 3 and 4 will play the eliminator round and loser of 1 & 2 will play the winner of 3 & 4 to meet the first finalist.

--IANS

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