Pherwani, Shah score contrasting victories

Sparsh Pherwani of Khar Gymkhana quashed the late charge from Western Railway’s Mohammad Hussain Khan and managed to scrape through by clinching a close 4-3 win in a high-pressure best-of-7-frame quarter-final match of the Khar Gymkhana Open Handicap Snooker Tournament 2018, and played at the Khar Gymkhana billiards room.

The Khar Gym’s talented cueist Sparsh (+20) playing on his home tables did not take much time to settle down and quickly got off the blocks winning the first three frames to grab a 3-0 lead. But, Khan is not prepared to give up without putting up a fight and  bounced back by pocketing the next three frames to level the scores and take the match to the wire. In the fifth frame, Sparsh regained his form and easily won the decider to complete a nerve-wracking win, with the frame scores reading 83-46, 80-64, 82-56, 50-83, 70-79, 36-105 and 97-46 in his favour. Sparsh had a break of 47 and 36 in the second and third frames, while Khan had a run of 76 in winning the sixth frame.

In the semi-finals, Sparsh will face off against Malabar Hill Club’s Manan Shah (+45) who halted the fine winning run of NSCI’s billiards marker Ajinkya Yelve (+30) by a comfortable 4-1 margin in another quarter-final match. Manan just kept it simple and cruised to 100-85, 95-67, 90-67, 73-125 and 111-77 win.

In another last eight match, Otters Club cueist Abhimanyu Gandhi (+10) had to bring out his best to overcome Hindu Gymkhana’s Anand Raghuvanshi (+20) 4-3 (83-60, 46-96, 23-71), 78-44, 68-49, 44-81 and 73-61) to also advance into penultimate round.

Meanwhile, Ulhasnagar’s Pankaj Basantani (+33) prevailed over KVSC’s Mayank Bhavsar (+25) 4-2 (101-49, 86-101, 110-39, 62-76, 87-47 and 96-64 and will meet Abhimanyu in the semi-final.