Mumbai, Aug 24:
Dhruv Sitwala, fresh from his silver medal winning feat in the recent world team championship, uncorked the tournament-high break of 188 to steer MB’s Shooters into the final of the inaugural Videocon Billiards Premier League at the Bombay Gymkhana here today.
Shooters will take on Race for Gold in the title round after the latter prevailed over RRockets 3-1 in the second Qualifier. Race for Gold also stopped SP Young Guns with a 3-0 win in the Eliminator.
Sitwala did the star turn in the first Qualifier when he prevailed over Australian Open bronze medallist Siddharth Parikh of RRockets in an exciting second singles, coming up with a break of 101 and followed it with a significant 59 and 44 in three visits, in reply to Parikh’s 114.
Parikh needed just 55 points when Sitwala, needing a little over 200 points, initiated a late charge to change the script.
The doubles pair of Abdur Rehman and Sahil Khan gave RRockets hope with a 2-1 lead before Vishal Madan forced the decider with a convincing win over Raajeev Sharma in the crucial fourth tie.
Sitwala, a twice world runner-up and Australian Open bronze medallist, returned to face Parikh for the second time in the decider and fired the decisive 188 and an unfinished 67 to seal it for Shooters.
Results: Qualifier 1: MB’s Shooters bt RRockets 3-2. Eliminator: Race for Gold bt SP Young Guns 3-0. Qualifier 2: Race for Gold bt RRockets 3-1.
How teams finished in the league stage: 1. RRockets (38 points); 2. MB’s Shooters (37); 3. Race for Gold (32); 4. SP Young Guns and WJ Genii (28); 6. SK’s Kannon Masters (26); 7. Tigers and SPG Billiards Punters (24); 9. The Rakish Kings (23); 10. Scorpions (21). (PTI)
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