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| Pankaj Advani holds the National Billiards trophy after the final (Instagram) |
Ace cueist Pankaj Advani defended his national billiards title — his
11th — after he defeated his PSPB teammate Dhruv Sitwala 5-2 in a
best-of-nine final in Bhopal.
Advani responded with breaks of 56 and 46 to restore parity at 1-1 after Sitwala's breaks of 64 and 42 late on Monday evening.
Sitwala, displaying excellent in-offs, pots and cannons, surged ahead by pocketing the third game with a sizeable break of 84.
He was on course to even wrest the fourth game after he compiled a
wonderful effort of 101, but a costly lapse by him gave a window of
opportunity to Advani.
Composing himself, in a superb rally the maestro chalked up a classy
break of 127 to snatch the game and draw level once again at 2-2.
Then Advani struck a purple patch, cajoling and nursing the balls at
the top of the table to craft identical unfinished breaks of 150 in the
fifth and sixth games to run up a crucial 4-2 games lead.
Not giving up, Sitwala put up a tremendous show of skill, patience
and temperament to strike a break of 134, but sadly, when in a good
position, he could not hold the balls together to give another chance to
Advani after a sequence of safety exchanges.
Advani never looked back after that, compiling an unfinished 148 break to take the game, match and title.
"Dhruv is a very close friend of mine, we share all the sneak peaks
of our lives. To be honest, it is never easy to play against your best
friend in the finals of a major event like this. But, after the snooker
failures, this victory gives me a sense of redemption," Advani was
quoted as saying in a media statement issued on Tuesday.
