IBSF World Champion Pankaj Advani was in a class of his own as he recorded an authoritative 1201-807 win against Singapore's former World Champion Peter Gilchrist in a quarterfinal match of the Cricket Club of India-organised Rs 10 lakh prize-money CCI Classic Invitation Billiards (time format) Championship 2023 on Tuesday, April 18. Advani enjoyed a commanding 576-311 points lead at the end of the first one-and-half hour session in the event being organised at the CCI Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall on Tuesday evening, April 18.
Advani thus joined Gujarat challengers Rupesh Shah and Dhvaj Haria in the semifinals. Later, they were joined by Englishman Rob Hall, who overcame India's Saurav Kothari in the last quarterfinal. Advani, the proud winner of 25 world titles, played the ball with pinpoint accuracy and stitched together breaks of 83 and 96 before constructing a triple-century run of 376 to take a firm grip on the contest.
He later compiled breaks of 156, 181 and 196 points to maintain the big lead. Gilchrist who had a solitary century break of 132 in the first session, hit form on resumption and made a break of 317, but it was too late and he had to bow out. Earlier on Tuesday morning, former World Champion and Indian No. 4 Shah played steadily and with clever tactics stunned India No. 2 Dhruv Sitwala of Mumbai as he cruised to an 813-445 victory after taking a sizable 417-245 points lead at the break.
On a side table, the left-handed Haria was high on confidence and played consistently to storm past an off-form Ishpreet Singh of Mumbai by recording an 1101-635 points margin of victory after racing to a 579-217 lead at the interval.
Meanwhile, Shah, who had lost to Sitwala in the semifinals of the National billiards champions last December, played with plenty of determination. Although Sitwala started with a break of 101 points to grab the initiative as he marginally raced a 100-plus points lead, Shah came roaring back and carefully constructed a break of 373 points to turn things around and take complete control. Thereafter, he played smartly to maintain the lead and with another run of 138 wrapped up the contest. On Wednesday, April 19, Shah will clash with Advani and the winner will advance to Thursday's, April 20, final.
Meanwhile, Haria showed excellent touch and compiled three double-century breaks of 241, 253 and 210 to outshine Ishpreet Singh, who is a snooker exponent but is capable of putting up a fight against the best in the business. The lanky Gujarat player led from the start and did not look back as he waltzed to victory. Haria will clash with England's Rob Hall in Wednesday's semifinal.
The Englishman Hall fought back to overcome Kolkatta's Sourav Kothari 873-603 after trailing 351-436 at the short interval.
Results:
Quarterfinals: Rupesh Shah bt Dhruv Sitwala 813[373, 138]-445[101, 74, 80].
Dhvaj Haria bt Ishpreet Singh 1101[241, 253, 210, 78]-635[75, 74].
Pankaj Advani bt Peter Gilchrist 1201[83, 96, 376, 156, 181, 196]-807[71, 132, 317, 106, 83].
Rob Hall bt Sourav Kothari 873[142, 107, 91, 94, 83]-603[216, 139, 103].