Mumbai, March 19 Legendary cueist Pankaj Advani (PSPB) saw his reign come to an end as he suffered a defeat at the hands of Kreishh Gurbaxani in the CCI Snooker Classic here on Thursday.
Gurbaxani pulled off a brilliant 4-2 (74-34, 38-68, 16-78, 76-14, 119-0, and 78-21) win in the summit clash of the Rs 13.5 lakh tournament.
Gurbaxani, who competes on the World Snooker Tour, started with a run of 41 to win the opening frame. The balls did not roll favorably for Advani, who seemed to be out of sorts. But, he still managed to win the next two with decent breaks of 52 and 45 to grab the lead.
Thereafter, Gurbaxani, who was cool and composed and with clever tactical play, won the subsequent three frames in a row to script a deserving victory. The icing on the cake was a superb break of 102 in the fifth frame before snatching the sixth to close out the win.
India No. 2 Aditya Mehta (PSPB) was in complete control as he defeated I.H. Manudev 4-1 (52-43, 101-8, 69-6, 46-82, 60-63) to progress to the quarterfinals.
Results
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Main Draw R-16: Digvijay Kadian beat Rrahul Sachdev 4-2 (16-74, 72(53)-28, 84(50)-35, 92(91)-0, 0-86(86), 71(63)-12);
Kreishh Gurbaxani bt Pankaj Advani 4-2 (74(41)-34, 38-68(52), 16-78(45), 76-14, 119(102)-0, 78-21);
Aditya Agarwal beat I.H. Manudev 4-1 (52-43, 101(93)-8, 69-6, 46-82, 60-63);
R-32: Mushtaq Khan beat Pinak Anap 4-2 (90(52)-00, 8-55, 0-105(93), 68-22, 91(57)-32, 75(51)-1);
Manan Chandra beat Faisal Khan 4-1 (59-15, 70-29, 71-46, 47-63, 71-28);
Kanishk Khanjaria beat Md Hussain Khan 4-1 (66-14, 23-65, 68(68)-1, 74-46, 77(77)-7);
Shahyan Razmi beat Vijay Nichani 4-2 (91(40)-30, 61-52, 58-86, 28-57, 64-15, 54-11).