Chawla holds nerve to best Ishpreet
December 23, 2017
Reference: http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other-sports/chawla-holds-nerve-to-best-ishpreet/article22261105.ece
Kamal Chawla, the IBSF World 6-Red snooker runner-up, held his nerve to get the better of Ishpreet Singh 5-3 in an exciting quarterfinal of the Phoenix Serene Spaces National 6-Red snooker here on Friday.
With not an inch given, all quarterfinals were fought hard and coming out on top were Pankaj Advani, Akshay Kumar and Saurav Kothari apart from Chawla.
Chawla had to use all his experience to quell an attacking challenge from Ishpreet, who potted fearlessly. “I just wanted to finish as soon as I could because he was potting balls like a pistol,” said Chawla. “He was just brilliant, “ Chawla said of Ishpreet.
With both winning six frames, Chawla stepped up his game at the right time to compile a break of 44 and held on to go past the winning line. “Tomorrow is a new day, and let’s see how it goes,” the former Asian gold medallist said.
Advani had to endure an obdurate Sandeep Gulati before he could progress. With the two resorting to excellent safety play, the game was slow. After two-games all, Advani raced ahead and Gulati did not have enough fuel to stop him.
Local boy R. Girish tried hard but could not keep Akshay Kumar from taking away the game.
“I played well and I’m looking forward to playing the same way in the semis,” Akshay said.
Sourav Kothari trailed by two frames but gathered momentum and took the next three frames with breaks of 46, 63 and 44. Although Varun tried to come back, Sourav stayed firm.
All the semifinalists, will represent India in the Asian 6-Red snooker championship to be held next year.
The results: Quarterfinals: Akshay Kumar bt R. Girish 5-2 (36-29, 10-48, 39-14, 52 (44)-4, 41-11, 25-33, 28-14); Kamal Chawla bt Ishpreet Singh Chadha 5-3 (10-31, 51-0, 10-35, 34-28, 40-0, 33-40, 44 (44)-0, 33-27); Sourav Kothari bt Varun Madan 5-3 (23-46, 1-39, 46 (46)-0, 68 (63)-0, 48 (44)-0, 27-33, 52 (52)-7, 49-5); Pankaj Advani bt Sandeep Gulati 5-3 (17-42, 34-25, 48-9, 5-39, 46-16, 43-30, 17-38, 45-8).
Pre-quarterfinals: Akshay Kumar bt G. Prabhu 5-3; R. Girish bt Avinash 5-1; Kamal Chawla bt Vinayak Agarwal 5-1; Ishpreet Singh Chadha bt Malkeet Singh 5-3; Varun Madan bt I.H. Manudev 5-2; Sourav Kothari bt Vijay Nichani 5-1; Sandeep Gulati bt Sahil Nayyar 5-1; Pankaj Advani bt Pushpender Singh 5-1.
