CCI Billiards: Kothari, Parikh storm into final Mumbai

Sourav Kothari of ONGC and Siddharth Parikh of Railways produced impressive performances today 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 organized by the Cricket Club of India (CCI) here.

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.

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.

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) beatDhvaj 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).

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