State Snooker: Viren Sharma beats Avenish Shah

Pune's Viren Sharma Thursday cracked two half-century break on way to recording an authoritative 3-1 win against Mumbai's Avenish Shahin the best-of-5-frame Group-A round-robin league match of Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship.

Striking the balls with accuracy and showing consistent potting Sharma looked to be in total control against Shah.

He started hesitantly and trailed by 38 points in the first, but then managed to stitch together a timely break of 58, which helped him win the frame.

He dropped his concentration and lost the second as Shah managed to level scores at 1-all.

Sharma once again found his touch and with a decent run of 38 pocketed the third and then signed off in style by constructing a massive 74 run which completely knocked the fight out his opponent.

Sharma eased to a 75-42, 37-62, 62-1 and 76-2 victory and finished second in the group behind Shabaz Khan of Mumbai.

He and Khan have qualified for the pre-quarter-finals.

Another Pune cueist Shivam Arora also advanced to the last 16 round along with Mukund Bharadia of Mumbai, who topped Group-B.

Results - round-robin league: Group-A:Viren Sharma (Pune) beat Avenish Shah (Mumbai) 3-1 (75(58)-42, 37-62, 62(38)-1, 76(74)-2); Group-B:Ashwin Palnitkar (Pune) beat Siddhesh Mulay (Chiplun) 3-1 (56-33, 28-53, 75-23, 73-49); Group-B:Mukund Bharadia (Mumbai) beat Ashwin Palnitkar (Pune) 3-0 (48-20, 62-31, 72-15); Group-B:Mukund Bharadia (Mumbai) beat Shivam Arora (Pune) 3-1 (23-97(52), 99-18, 61-08, 56-42);
Group-C:Rohan Kothare (Aurangabad) beat Harmehr Mago (Mumbai) 3-1 (50-17, 38-47, 65-37, 46-10); Group-C:Anand Raghuvanshi (Mumbai) beat Pankaj Khatri (Nashik) 3-2 (78-10, 68-10, 47-59, 21-56, 80-41);
Group-D:Mayank Bhavsar (Mumbai) beat Sumehr Mago (Mumbai) 3-0 (69-36, 63-13, 59-17); Group-D:Siddharth Tembe (Pune) beat Manav Pachal (Mumbai) 3-2 (55-41, 56-10, 9-70, 48-56, 69-29);
Group-E:Rishabh Thakkar (Mumbai) beat Dhawal Gadhvi (Pune) 3-2 (67-30, 62(62)-0, 15-57, 47-70, 64-35); Group-E:Cherag Ramakrishan (Mumbai) beat Kaiwalya Chavan 3-1 (50-36, 67-44, 40-64, 70-50)