Lilly blanks Kothari to enter quarter finals at snooker meet

Dharminder Lilly of Punjab today overwhelmed Kolkata championship runner-up Sourav Kothari of PSPB 5-0 in the pre-quarter final stage of RKG Pro Snooker Series 2015.
Lilly, who brought up one half century break in the game, will meet another Kolkata-based Petroleum Sports Promotion Board player, Brijesh Damani, for a place in the semi-finals of the tournament being played at NSCI here.
In two other pre-quarter finals that helped the winners earn a shot against one another, Kamal Chawla of the Railways got the better of Shahbaz Khan of PSPB 5-2, while Delhi's Varun Madan trounced veteran Rafath Habib, also of Railways, 5-1.

Also through to the last eight were Pankaj Advani, Brijesh Damani and Manan Chandra, who faced little resistance when getting past Lucky Vatnani (5-1), Shivam Arora (5-2) and Faisal Khan (5-1) respectively in the pre-quarter finals.
Against Lilly, Kothari appeared to be consistent in first frame and had a break off 35. But once he gave chance to Lilly, the latter dominated entirely and after winning that frame constantly kept Kothari under pressure.
The third and fourth frames were crucial. Lilly had a break of 56 in third and swept away the fourth leaving Kothari way behind. In the fifth frame, Kothari had 35 points on board but not that enough to stop Lilly and he sealed the match 5-0.

Kamal Chawla again did well after being down 0-2 against Shahbaaz Khan, who started well with a break of 60 but lost focus after winning first two frames.
Chawla compiled good breaks of 64, 49, 63 and 68 to brush aside Shahbaaz and confirm his berth in the quarter finals.
Results (Pre-quarters) Kamal Chawla (RLY) beat Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) 5-2 (06-70(60), 12-55, 87(64)-48, 83(49)-24, 80-42, 88(63)-07, 93(68)-29); Varun Madan (DL) beat Rafath Habib (RLY) 5-1 (53-02, 68-30, 69-28, 80(66)-36, 43-73, 62-15); Dharminder Lilly (PB) beat Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 5-0 (71-43(35), 87-34, 77(56)-43, 54-00, 62-35); Brijesh Damani (PSPB) beat Shivam Arora (BH) 5-2 (36-57, 74-06, 79(54)-01, 56-28, 53-60, 62-42, 68-38); Manan Chandra (PSPB) beat Faisal Khan (RLY) 5-1 (84(74)-00, 78-28, 04-83, 61-45, 72(54)-30, 44-00); Pankaj Advani (PSPB) beat Lucky Vatnani (PSPB) 5-1 (76(65)-20, 67(66)-04, 65-40, 77-08, 34-81, 75(75)-44).