Pankaj Advani wins billiards final of Western India Billiards and Snooker Championship

Mumbai: Pankaj Advani crushed S Shrikrishna by a margin of 822-520 in the billiards final to clinch yet another title wins here in the Western India Billiards and Snooker Championship on Sunday.

The 27-time world champion Advani had earlier won five consecutive finals in different competitions in Mumbai and his triumph on Sunday was his sixth in a row in summit clashes.

Over the last two years, Advani has recorded title wins in both the classic billiards and snooker tournaments in last two editions of the Cricket Club of India event and earlier this year he had won the NSCI Baulkline 3.0 competition.

Advani was thus awarded the winning prize of Rs 2 lakh while Tamil Nadu’s Shrikrishna got Rs 1.20 lakh as the runner-up.

Dhvaj Haria and Shahyan Razmi, who lost in the semifinal round, got Rs 60,000 each for their efforts.

In the summit clash both Advani and Shrikrishna started tentatively and struggled to stitch together big breaks initially.

The contest also did not rise above expectations as there were just half a dozen substantial breaks in the entire three-hour contest.

Advani compiled a sequence breaks 57, 120, 62, 86, and 56, while Shrikrishna managed a solitary effort 94.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Advani stamped his authority and gave Mumbai’s talented teenager Shahyan Razmi a good exhibition of precision play while executing the winning and losing hazards and making contact with the balls for the cannons.

Shahyan could only watch in awe as Advani compiled a double century effort and multiple breaks of 185, 176, 171, 160, and 140 to cruise to a 1320-300 victory with a degree of comfort.

In the other semi-final, Shrikrishna knocked out Dhvaj Haria by a massive pointBilliards Championship, difference 953-378 to confirm his spot in the summit round.

Shrikrishna showed more consistency as compared to the lanky Gujarat challenger Haria produced breaks of 189, 141, 87, 77, 62, 57, and 48. In contrast, Haria managed just a couple of decent runs of 65, 64, 48, and 48.

Results:

Senior billiards (final): Pankaj Advani (ONGC) bt S. Shrikrishna (BPCL) 822-520; semi-finals: Pankaj Advani (ONGC) bt Shahyan Razmi (Mum) 1320-300; S Shrikrishna (BPCL) bt Dhvaj Haria (IOCL) 953-378.