Pune: Mumbai’s gifted cueist Sparsh Pherwani came up with a calculated, steady 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 at the Deccan Gymkhna.
Pherwani and Arora fought tooth and nail. The Pune player grabbed the initiative by winning the first and third frames to grab 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 satisfying 64-75, 67-43, 39-63, 60-56, 68-22, 42-52, and 60-46 success and a passage to the quarter-finals.
Results: (Pre-quarter-finals): Mukund Bharadia bt Viren Sharma 4-2 (56-26, 57-44, 42-63, 31-51, 76(70)-1, 59-18); Pankaj Khatri bt Kreishh Gurbaxani 4-2 (35-75, 52-46, 59-20, 20-63, 63-21, 60-37);
Rishabh Thakkar bt Mayank Bhavsar 4-1 (43-71, 69-2, 61-6, 73-33, 84-60); Abhimanyu Gandhi bt Aakash Padalikar 4-2 75(69)-8, 27-53, 73-26, 37-64, 70-10, 67-13).
