CCI billiards: Shrikrishna records 2nd successive win

Tamil Nadu lad S Shrikrishna charged to his second successive win when he beat back a late fight from senior pro Nalin Patel of Maharashtra and went on to clinch a comfortable 449-319 victory in a Group G league match of the CCI Billiards Classic 2018 here today.

The tournament is organised by the Cricket Club of India.

The young BPCL cueist Shrikrishna kept it simple and did well to grab every opportunity to keep the scoreboard ticking and, with the help of three decent half century breaks 58, 79 and 76, led from the start.

Patel produced a late charge by making breaks of 54 and 99, but it was a little too late as the Chennai youngster crossed the finish line with a 130 points difference.

Shrikrishna had earlier defeated another Maharashtra player Rishabh Kumar 448-318.

Meanwhile, former two-time Asian Billiards champion Dhruv Sitwala of ONGC maintained the winning momentum as he prevailed over Maharashtras Chandu Kansodaria 370-268 to register his second win in Group G.

Former World Champion Rupesh Shah of ONGC also recorded back to back wins in Group C.

The Gujarat cueist in the process also compiled a break of 177, the highest in the tournament, as he outplayed Shekhar Surve of Maharashtra by a massive 569-175 margin with a degree of comfort.

Shah in his opening match defeated Maharashtras V. Subramaniam 364-204.

Results Group-A: Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) beat Rajeev Sharma (Maha) 397(96)-224;
Group-A: Hasan Badami (Maha) beat Sandeep Gulati 435(66.74,65)-216;
Group-C: Rohan Jambasuria (Mah) beat Shekhar Surve (Mah) 291(61)-259(58);
Group-C: Rupesh Shah (ONGC) beat V. Subramaniam (Mah) 364-204;
Rupesh Shah beat Shekhar Surve (Maha) 569 (177,60,54)-175;
Group-D: Alok Kumar (ONGC) beat Rayaan Razmi (Mah) 557 (85,76)-351;
Alok Kumar (ONGC) beat Neeraj Kumar (Rlys) 438(45,51,48)-300;
Group-E: S. Simhachalam beat Loukic Pathare (Maha) 279-277;
Group-F: K. Venkatesh (Rlys ) beat Raj Khandawala (Mah) 443(67,76)-302;
Group-F: Devendra Joshi (BPCL) beat Hitesh Kotwani (Mah) 524 (92,78)-195;
Group-G: S. Shrikrishna (BPCL) beat Nalin Patel (Maha) 449(58,79,76)-319(54,99);