Bijlani, Panchal move into second round

Sanjiv Bijlani and Manav Panchal faced a challenging time to enter the second qualifying round of the senior billiards event in the BSAM Maharashtra State Senior Snooker and Billiards Selection (leg-2) Championship.

Bijlani staved off a spirited fight from Kishore Laungani by pulling off a 3-1 victory in the best-of-five frame race-to-100 point first round qualifying match on Tuesday at the Bombay Gymkhana.

In another all-Mumbai match, Panchal dashed the aspirations of Zahir Shroff by clinching a hard-fought 3-1 win.

Sparsh Pherwani strolled to a facile 3-0 win against Sanjeev Agarwal in another qualifying first round match.

Results (Qualifying round-1): Sparsh Pherwani (CCI) beat Sanjeev Agarwal (Matoshree) 3-0; Sanjiv Bijalani (Park Club) beat Kishore Laungani (Khar Gym) 3-1; Manav Panchal (MHC) beat Zahir Shroff (Bombay Gym) 3-1; Mithil Shinde (Thane) beat Mehernosh Billimoria (Bombay Gymkhana) 3-0; Anil Sagar (Matoshree) beat Umesh Marathe (Dadar Club) 3-0.