Indian challenge ends in World Billiards

It was a case of so near yet so far as the two veteran Indian cueists, Alok Kumar and Ashok Shandilya, fell just before the last hurdle in the World Billiards Championship, here.
Curtains came down on Indian campaign with Alok and Shandilya losing their respective semi-final matches in the 'Long up' format last night at the Northern Snooker Centre.
After winning the World Championship 150-up format last week, England's David Causier overcame a weighty challenge from Shandilya 1250-710 in the first semi-final, while Peter Gilchrist knocked out Alok 1250-916 in the another last-four match.
In 1250-Up format semi-final, Alok maintained a lead of more than 100 points till 900 mark figure but after that Gilchrist showed his class by producing three consecutive breaks of 112, 265 and unfinished 135 to register a 334 points win over the Indian.

In the other semi-final, Causier produced showers of breaks and maintained a substantial lead throughout the match. Whenever Shandilya tried to narrow down the lead, Causier stood up and produced another break to keep pushing his opponent down.
Lastly, Shandilya went down to Causier by a difference of 440 points.
Earlier, Point Format finalist Alok had defeated Nalin Patel of England 1000-490, while Shandilya got the better of compatriot Sourav Kothari 1000-989 in their respective quarter-finals.
From the traditional time format, this year's championship saw the introduction of 'Long up' format with 400 points for the league stages, 500 for round of 32, 750 for last 16 and 1000 for the quarters.