Lucknow: Local challengers never had it so good in the State Bank Indian National Six Red Snooker Championship being played here at the Vijayant Khand of Gomti Nagar, Lucknow in the Indoor TT complex of the Mini stadium.
It was a glorious Sunday for the local state players, as well as other not so well known cueists, as favourites were at the receiving end in the 9 day competition powered by Indian Oil corporation.
Stalwart city player of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Amit Gupta lowered the colours of International Alok Kumar of Punjab by 43-19, 19-32, 36-10, 42-04, 17-39, 19-39 and 34-23 points in a very exciting match which went down to the wire. Alok who is known for his great comebacks, for once was found wanting, as Amit tightened the screws for a superb finish to create a big upset.
Another stalwart of the Uttar Pradesh State, Vinayak Agarwal, as if inspired, upset the apple cart of International Lucky Vatnani beating him in seven closely contested frames. In a game where nerves decided the actual outcome, it was Vinayak who stood his ground to win by 00-37, 17-34, 12-49, 40-18, 28-21 and 54-14 and 33-09 points. Vinayak was down by 0-3 but in a magnificent rally, he beat Lucky with a superb finish in the next four frames.
Anees Saini of Haryana was instrumental in another upset of the day as he downed International Brijesh Damani of West Bengal in five frames which saw Damani with his back to the wall as Anees plundered pot over pot to win by 23-14, 37-12, 18-37, 33-04 and 41-12 points.
Defending 6 red national champion, Shivam Arora was another casuality going down to KS Naveen Kumar of Karnataka in straight frames. Shivam who was unable to adjust to the playing conditions was just not in the right frame of mind. Naveen, sensing his chance, made the most of the openings by potting well and topping it with some good safe moves, to defeat Shivam by 25-11, 36-10, 37-33 and 32-01 points.
Once a force to reckon with, now a pale shadow of his former self, Veteran UP State cueist, Kan Kan Shamsi was at the losing end on this day. Playing with Shamsi in a group match of the 64 contestants league, I.V. Rajeev of Andhra Pradesh was at his very best, trouncing the Veteran in straight frames by 48-00, 39-00, 53-00 and 50-00 points. Such was the ferocity of Rajiv's potting that Shamsi could not pot a single red ball in the total four frames played.
However, making amends in his next tie, Shamsi got the better of Tamil Nadu player, Dileep Kumar in six frames with a well fought out victory by 31-27, 36-30, 10-38, 24-31, 31-11 and 38-25 points.
On the other table, promising youngster Mandeep Singh of Uttar Pradesh could not match the class of Rafath Habib of Tamil Nadu to go down fighting in six frames. Habib was victorius in the match, but not before Mandeep had put up a spirited resistance to take two frames off from the Asian Gold Medallist. Habib won at the end by 43-04, 40-00, 35-221 04-60, 26-35 and 39-26 points.
Sumesh Turki of Jammu and Kashmir spoiled the party of 6 red specialist from Delhi, Varun Madan, displaying a sound temperament with a game to match, to win the tie by 43-19, 06-62, 32-24, 20-48, 56-00 and 52-04 points.
With the scores tied at 2 frames a piece, Turki deepened his concentration to produce some very intelligent mix of safety and neat potting to emerge triumphant.
Young Rahul Sachdeva recorded an impressive 4 frames to 2 win over KS Naveen Kumar of Karnataka by 41-27, 43-31, 07-37, 48-02, 25-56 and 48-28 points. Naveen rallied back valiantly from a 1-3 deficit to take the fifth frame, but just when it looked he would go further, Rahul potting flawlessly sealed his victory by pocketing the sixth frame.
Lanky Sumit Talwar of Chandigarh, the national 9 ball champion was a bit too hot for Sahil Nayyar of Punjab beating him easily by 4-1 frames at 33-01, 33-20, 34-22, 27-31 and 40-13 points. Sumit is one deceptive player, for his appearance does not reflect his true worth, but he can be very very good on his day. So he was, in this outing.
However, the audience at the competition powered by Indian OIl Corporation, was entertained to some superlative potting from Uttarakhand's Pushpender Singh in another match which saw the dashing cueist rock the boat of Punjab's Dhruv Verma in 6 exciting frames. Pushpender who brooks no delay on his shots, was a real delight to watch, as he coasted to a 43-36, 33-21, 04-40, 45-07, 30-37 and 32-26 points win.
In other matches of the league:- IH Manudev of Karnataka beat Mark Menezes of Uttar Pradesh by 4-2 frames; Laxman Rawat of Delhi beat
Vansh Panjwani of UP by 4-1 frames; J. Varun Kumar of Tamil Nadu beat Aayush Kumar of Punjab by 4-3 frames; Shivam Arora of Bihar beat Altamash Saifi of Delhi by 4-0 frames; Himanshu Jain of AP beat Deepinder Singh of Punjab by 4-0 frames; Divya Sharma of Haryana beat Subrat Das of Orissa by 4-3 frames; Dilip Kumar of Tamil Nadu beat Anmoldeep Singh of Punjab by 4-3 frames; S.A.Saleem of Tamil Nadu beat Abhimanyu Gandhi of Gujarat by 4-1 frames; Sandeep Gulati of Delhi beat Ketan Chawla of MP 4-3 frames; Lalrina Renthelei of Mizoram beat Prateek of UP by 4-2 frames with a break of 50 in the second frame; Anurag Giri of AP beat Vipin Premi of UP by 4-2 frames; Balaji Reddy of Karnataka beat Gurdit Singh of Delhi by 4-1 frames; Shahbaz Khan of West Bengal beat Ashmit Singh of Delhi by 4-0 frames; Dhwaj Haria of Gujarat beat Sameer Bhalla of Haryana by 4-1 frames; Varun Madan of Delhi beat Mark Menezes of UP by 4-0 frames; Himanshu Jain of AP beat S.A.Saleem of TN by 4-1 frames; I.V.Rajeev of AP beat Anmoldeep Singh of Punjab by 4-0 frames; Abhimanyu Gandhi of Gujarat beat Deepinder Singh of Punjab by 4-3 frames; Rahul Sachdeva of Maharashtra beat Altamash Saifi of Delhi by 4-0 frames; Michael Rebello of Karnataka beat Faisal Khan of Delhi by 4-2 frames; Vipin Sethi of Delhi beat Neeraj Kumar of Bihar by 4-2 frames; Manish Jain of West Bengal beat Imran Khan of UP by 4-0 frames; Vijay Goel of Delhi beat Chandan Agarwal of UP by 4-1 frames; Pushpinder Singh of Delhi beat Mandeep Singh of UP by 4-1 frames; Rajat Khaneja of Chandigarh beat Malkeet Singh of UP by 4-2 frames.