CCI Billiards: Kothari, Parikh storm into final

Sourav Kothari of ONGC and Siddharth Parikh of Railways produced impressive performances on Saturday as they blew away their respective semi-final opponents to storm into the final of the Rs 3.8 lakh prize-money CCI Billiards Classic 2018.

The tournament has been organised by the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai.

In a 150-minute semi-final encounter, the Kolkata-based Kothari, a former Asian Billiards champion, showed good break-building abilities and started with a bang amassing a 211 break, his third double century effort in the competition, to brush aside the lukewarm challenge from seasoned pro and compatriot Alok Kumar, marching to a 652-231 victory.

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Besides the mammoth break, Kothari had a century run of 130 and two breaks of 74 and 63 wrap up the match.

Alok Kumar, who was unable to offer much of a fight, could only manage a half century break of 52.

On a side table, Parikh picked up steam from the start to send his Railways teammate Ashok Shandilya crashing out in the penultimate round.

The lanky Parikh potted consistently and constructed two century breaks -- 115 and 198 and over half a dozen half centuries as he waltzed to a 991-424 victory without much ado.

Earlier, Dhvaj Haria of IOC who had made a magnificent 288 break in the round of 16, could not continue with the same form and suffered a defeat at the hands of ONGCs Alok Kumar in a quarter-final match.

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Results: semi-finals:Sourav Kothari (ONGC) beat Alok Kumar (ONGC) 652 (211, 74, 130, 63)-231(52); Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) beat Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) 991 (90, 66, 115, 83, 198, 52, 70, 63, 55)-424 (53, 55, 65).

Results: quarter-finals: Sourav Kothari (ONGC) beat Rohan Jambusaria (Mah) 733 (82, 100, 108, 84, 132, 114)-439.

Alok Kumar (ONGC) beat Dhvaj Haria (ONGC) 636 (138, 64, 62)-560 (153, 178, 78); Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) beat K Venkatesh (Rlys) 759 (89, 56, 91, 54, 123)-409 (56); Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) beat S. Shrikrishna (BPCL) 704 (51, 158, 53)-597 (50, 51, 79).