Sethi, Advani crash out

The fourth day's proceedings turned out to be unlucky for reigning world IBSF champion Pankaj Advani, former world champion Geet Sethi and former Asian champion Alok Kumar, as they lost to lesser-known cueists in the 72nd BSNL National Billiards and Snooker Championships, in Chennai on Thursday.

In photo-finish pre-quarter-final billiards encounters, Advani and Kumar were shown the door by Indian Railways stars Mohd. Asim and K Venkatesham respectively, while up and coming Sourav Kothari (PSPB), son of former champion Manoj Kothari of Maharashtra, put paid to Sethi's aspirations.

Advani, Sethi and Kumar paid the price for indiscreet shots at vital moments with the clock ticking by and the winners made good use of the opportunities that came their way to progress to the last eight.

Perhaps, the format of best of two-hour play is a lottery for the experienced players; it is like the new super-tiebreak rule introduced this year in the doubles play in tennis.

Venkatesham pipped Kumar (PSPB) by one point (497-496) while Asim defeated Advani 627-609. Sethi lost to Sourav Kothari 571-577.

In other matches, Dhrun Sitwala (PSPB) bt Dharmender Lily (PUN) 810-842, Bhaskar (Kar) bt Shakeel Ahmed (Ben) 840- 324, Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Arun Agarwal (Mah) 481-451, Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Prem Prakash (TN) 519-501 and Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Manna Chandra (PSPB) 832-496.

Advani, who was leading by 105 points with about 15 minutes to go, scored two points in his next visit and then missed a long red in-off. Here Asim came up with a superb 147 to lead 294-252 and then steadied his game to win at 627-609.

Sethi, who played a memorable match yesterday to oust Yasin Merchant and make the last 16 stage, started off with an elegant 289 in his first visit as against 93 by his rival, but failed to maintain the rhythm before losing the match 571-577.

Kothari took full advantage of Sethi's four lean trots, including three single digit figures, to go into the lead at 323-317.

With just 18 minutes to go, Sethi was leading by over 200 points. But he made a mess of an easy drop cannon that helped Kothari come up with a neatly accumulated 228 to wipe off the deficit and then lead by 574 against 553.

With few seconds for the match's closure, Sethi, who had the wherewithal to hold on to his game, failed in fluency and consistency as he mustered just 18 points.

Another four points and freezing the game rightfully would have meant a win for Sethi.

Kothari saw this as a god-sent opportunity and score three points before the hooter went off to win by a six-point margin.