Superb fightback by Manav Panchal

At the KSBA Hall, Manav, facing a snooker, potted the last four colours in style to wrap the game at 62-20 and the match at 56-60, 50-55, 75-18, 62-40, 62-20. Manav had jumped from 2-4 to 39-4, potting the black four times and the green once earlier in the frame, which proved vital in the final account.

Rajiv began the match in a grand manner winning the first two frames. It was at this stage that the match came alive with Manav taking the third with short but consistent breaks. The fourth was a real humdinger with the cueists going neck to neck.

From 35-34 Manav went ahead 46-34 on colours, but a foul on the pink, reduced his lead to 40-46 giving Rajiv the advantage. With Rajiv failing to cash in on the opportunity by squandering an easy pink, Manav sealed the frame potting the pink and took the match into the fifth frame.

Top seed Guarav Anand had no troubles against AP’s Tarun Gupta as he won the first frame 75-16 displaying superb `table-sense’. Tarun made a strong attempt in the second, but when Gaurav managed to take the frame on the pink and black at 55-29, the writing was on the wall for Tarun. The 70-49 win in the third frame looked a mere formality for Gaurav.

Second seed and strong contender Siddarth Anand matched the top seed in terms of controlling the proceedings in the match. Siddarth won the first at 85-8 when his rival, Gujarat’s Priyam Parekh conceded the frame from the yellow. Priyam was to concede the third too at 14-92 with one red and the colours left on the table. In between, Siddarth capitalised on an insipid foul by Priyam to win the second at 61-33.

The last entrant into the semi-final league was in no way the least impressive. Manan Chandra, who had recorded the highest break of the championship so far with a 57 during his win over Tamil Nadu’s Nitin Bhindal in the pre-quarterfinals, was in complete control of his match against Mahrashtra’s Jamshed Mistry. Jamshed, who ousted fancied Anuj Jhnujhnuwala in the previous round failed to repeat the act and went down 33-67, 10-51, 23-56.

Big win for Anuj: Later, in the billiards section, Karnataka’s Anuj Jhunjhunwala overcame the nightmare defeat in snooker to maul Orissa’s M Rathore 960-284. Anuj broke 63 on his 20th visit, 54 on 57th and 73 on 79th to rout his rival.

In another match, Jai Ganesh of Tamil Nadu beat Priyam Parekh (Gujarat) 367-363 registering a 79 on his 36th visit to the table. The other winners on the day were Gujarat’s Chintan Shah who beat Karnataka’s Vijay Goklani 384-368, Rajat Taneja of Delhi who defeated West Bengal’s Phillip Crizzle 531-337 and Maharashtra’s Devang Shah a 469-200 winner over Kerala’s Paresh Sanghania.