Maharashtra Snooker: Mumbai's Pherwani beats Pune's Arora

Mumbai's Sparsh Pherwani came up with a calculated performance and managed to scrape past Pune's Shivam Arora in an engrossing pre-quarter-final match of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018 Friday.

In a match of fluctuating fortunes, both Pherwani and Arora fought tooth and nail.

The Pune player grabbed the initiative by winning the first and third frames to take a 2-1 lead.

But Pherwani, with some calculative play, managed to pocket the next two frames in succession to jump into the lead (3-2).

Arora fought back and took the sixth to level scores and take the match to the wire.

In the decider, Pherwani was a bit more consistent with his pots and went on to claim the seventh frame to clinch a satisfying64-75, 67-43, 39-63, 60-56, 68-22, 42-52, 60-46 win to move into the quarter-finals.

In contrast, Punes Vignesh Sanghvi had an easy outing as he outshone Shabaz Khan of Mumbai by recording a convincing 4-1 win in another last 16 game.

Mumbai's Anand Raguvanshi too had a fairly relaxed time as he tamed his city rival Raajeev Sharma by charging to a 4-1 (51-42, 56-35, 39-71, 61-54, 81-19) victory.

Results Pre-quarter-finals:Mukund Bharadia (Mumbai) beat Viren Sharma (Pune) 4-2 (56-26, 57-44, 42-63, 31-51, 76(70)-1, 59-18); Pankaj Khatri (Nashik) beat Kreishh Gurbaxani (Mumbai) 4-2 (35-75, 52-46, 59-20, 20-63, 63-21, 60-37); Rishabh Thakkar (Mumbai) beat Mayank Bhavsar (Mumbai) 4-1 (43-71, 69-2, 61-6, 73-33, 84-60); Abhimanyu Gandhi (Mumbai) beat Aakash Padalikar (Pune) 4-2 75(69)-8, 27-53, 73-26, 37-64, 70-10, 67-13); Vignesh Sanghvi (Pune) beat Shabaz Khan (Mumbai) 4-1 (59-9, 65(50)-61, 68-32, 13-68, 67-19); Manav Panchal (Mumbai) beat Cherag Ramakrishnan (Mumbai) 4-0 (61-37, 58-30, 67-21, 63-16); Sparsh Pherwani (Mumbai) beat Shivam Arora (Pune) 4-3 (64-75, 67-43, 39-63, 60-56, 68-22, 42-52, 60-46); Anand Raguvanshi (Mumbai) beat Raajeev Sharma (Mumbai) 4-1 (51-42, 56-35, 39-71, 61-54, 81-19).