NSCI teams march into pre-quarter-finals

NSCI ‘Seniors’ and NSCI ‘Youngsters’ with some calculated and steady play registered convincing 3-0 wins against CCI ‘X Men’ and KG ‘G.S.T.’ respectively in round of 32 matches of the Otters Club-Mumbai Snooker League (MSL) – 2017, conducted by the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM).

Malabar ‘Matka Kings’ also produced a strong performance to record an identical 3-0 victory against NIA ‘Quarterpillar’ in another round of 32 encounter, played at the Otters Club billiards hall. ‘Matka Kings’ player Akshat Kejriwal was awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ prize.

NSCI ‘Seniors’ were provided the perfect start with Ish Bawa (+50 handicap) getting the better of CCI’s ace cueist Hasan Badami (+10) by a comfortable 97-64 points before the NSCI doubles combination of Jatinder Dawar and Sanjiv Bijlani (+21) overcame Nikhil Ootam and Sundeep Gulrajani (+21) by a close 64-61 margin in the second frame. Later, NSCI’s seasoned player Sarang Shroff (+15) showed his class of yore as he sidelined Siddraj Shah (+45) winning the third frame 86-71 to wrap up the match and seal NSCI’s progress to the pre-quarter-finals. Shroff was declared ‘Player of the Match’.

NSCI ‘Youngsters’ also came up with a disciplined display and with some consistent performances went on to put it across the formidable KG ‘G.S.T.’ (Khar Gymkhana) side. Abhishek Bajaj (+30) was the star performer for NSCI as he held his nerves and potting confidently won a crucial opening frame defeating Khar Gymkhana’s leading player Rahul Sachdev (+5) 94-22. Inspired by Bajaj’s win, the NSCI doubles pair of Sagar Desai and Ronak Dedhia (+24) maintained the winning momentum by scoring a win against the Khar Gymkhana’s duo of Deepak Kubchandani and Faisal Khan (+9) by a narrow 64-53 points. Later, Jay Shroff won a tight third frame 100-93 against Arjun Tejwani to close out the match in NSCI’s favour. The ‘Player of the Match’ award went to Abhishek Bajaj.

Meanwhile, young Ryaan Razmi gave his best but was unable to inspire Radio ‘Gen X’ to victory against JVPG ‘Jugglers’. Ryaan (+40) showed good form and rolled in a break of 44, which helped him to win the first frame defeating Krishna Saraf (+45) 110-59. But, ‘Jugglers bounced back in style winning the next three to complete a 3-1 win. Ryaan for his fine efforts was picked as the winner of the ‘Player of the Match’ award.

The Malabar team enjoyed a relatively much easier passage to the pre-quarter-finals as Manan Shah and Akshat Kejriwal cruised to victories in their respective frames and the doubles pairing of Manav Panchal and captain Nitin Banka also succeeded in winning the doubles tie to seal their win. Akshat of ‘Matka Kings’ was named ‘Player of the Match’.