Ace cueist Pankaj Advani of ONGC extended his dominance on the green baize as he completed a grand double by winning the Senior Snooker and Billiards crown in as many days of the CR Realty-Western India Billiards and Snooker Championships 2024 that was organised and hosted by Khar Gymkhana in association with the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM) at its Billiards Hall.

The calm and composed Advani, the proud winner of 27 World titles, showed a steely resolve to shrug off a strong challenge from Railway’s lanky bespectacled cueist Kamal Chawla 6-4, after overcoming a two frame deficit in a long drawn Snooker final that lasted too close to seven hours final.

Advani sealed his win with the frame scores reading 11-72, 31-58, 95-40, 52-42, 69-43, 43-74, 22-59, 75-62, 84-58, and 58-10 in his favour.

The Bengaluru-based Advani who had earlier in the day defeated S. Shrikrishna in the three-hour session Billiards semi-finals has now won seven consecutive titles (Four Snooker & Three  billiards) in the financial capital of India over the past two years.

The fare dished out by both champions was lackluster and there was hardly much to cheer for the cue sports aficionados, who were present in expectation of watching top-quality Snooker. Both players were over-cautious and adopted safety measures to try and outsmart each other. With both not showing the confidence to go for their shots there were not too many substantial breaks and the frames took time to finish which resulted in the match dragging on late into the evening.

Advani for all his good showing produced just two breaks of 69 (3^rd frame) and 55 (8^th frame). In contrast Chawla had breaks on 51 and 38 in the opening two frames followed by efforts of 61 (6^th frame) and 40 (8^th frame).

Earlier in the semi-finals, Chawla had emerged victorious against BPCL’s Shrikrishna  5-2 (119-18, 41-46, 51-60, 82-39, 73-0, 86-20, and 62-40). In the second semi-finals, Advani eased past Faisal Khan of Railways  5-1 (131-0, 85-43, 82-53, 58-41, 59-83, 70-35).

Earlier India’s most accomplished cueist Pankaj Advani (ONGC) continued with his love affair with the city and extended his winning streak in Billiards too. The 39-year old maestro produced another steady performance to overcome S. Shrikrishna (BPCL) by a points score line of 822-520 in the final on Sunday.

Among Advani's illustrious achievements over the past two years included his triumph in both the Classic Billiards and Snooker tournaments in the last two editions at the Cricket Club of India and early this year he had clinched the NSCI Baulkline 3.0 tournament.

Both Advani and Shrikrishna started tentatively and struggled to stitch together big breaks initially. The match also did not rise above expectations as there were just half a dozen substantial breaks in the entire three-hour contest.

The champion Advani compiled a sequence breaks 57, 120, 62, 86, and 56, while Shrikrishna managed a solitary effort 94.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Advani showed his class and gave Mumbai’s talented teenager Shahyan Razmi a good exhibition of precision play while executing the winning and losing hazards and making contact with the balls for the cannons. Shahyan could watch in awe as Advani compiled a double century effort and multiple breaks of 185, 176, 171, 160, and 140 to cruise to a 1320-300 victory with a degree of comfort.

In the second semi-finals, Shrikrishna continued with a fine run of winning form as he once played with plenty of confidence to knock the fight out of Dhvaj Haria (IOCL) by a massive points, difference 953-378 to confirm his spot in the summit round.

The Tamil Nadu cueist Shrikrishna who showed more consistency as compared to the lanky Gujarat challenger Haria produced breaks of 189, 141, 87, 77, 62, 57, and 48. In contrast, Haria managed just a couple of decent runs of 65, 64, 48, and 48.

Advani was presented with the handsome Champions’ trophy and the Winners’ purse of Rs. Two lakhs for his success in Billiards Final while Shrikrishna received the runner-up trophy and a cash award of 1.20 lakh. The losing semi-finalists Dhvaj Haria and Shahyan Razmi got Rs 60,000 each.

 Results

# Senior Snooker

Semi-finals: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) beat S. Shrikrishna (BPCL) 5-2 (119(58)-18, 41-46, 51-60, 82-39, 73(54)-0, 86(86)-20, 62-40); Pankaj Advani (ONGC) beat Faisal Khan (Rlys) 5-1 (131(115)-0, 85(53)-43, 82-53, 58-41, 59-83, 70-35).

Final: Pankaj Advani (ONGC) beat Kamal Chawla (Rlys) 6-4 (11-72(51), 31-58(38), 95(69)-40), 52-42, 69-43, 43-74(61), 22-59, 75(55)-62(40), 84-58, 58-10).

# Senior Billiards

Semi-finals: Pankaj Advani (ONGC) beat Shahyan Razmi (Mum) 1320-300; S. Shrikrishna (BPCL) beat Dhvaj Haria (IOCL) 953-378.

Final: Pankaj Advani (ONGC) beat S. Shrikrishna (BPCL) 822-520

Photo Above: Pankaj Advani  continued with his impressive winning run and clinched his seventh title in Mumbai in the last two years