CHENNAI: World champion Pankaj Advani crushed Delhi’s Avinash Kumar to move into the men’s 6-Red snooker knockouts in the National Billiards & Snooker Championships on Thursday.
PSPB’s Advani produced a stellar show to win 4-2, including a break of 47 in the third frame to enter the round of 32 at the Nehru Indoor Stadium. Along with Advani, Kamal Chawla (RSPB), Aditya Mehta (PSPB) and S Shrikrishna (PSPB) also reached the round of 32. Meanwhile, Rakesh Kamaraj is the lone Tamil Nadu player in the knock-outs and will meet Paras Gupta (UP) in the last-32 round.
In women’s 6-Red snooker, in-form Anupama Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu beat Renu Bharkatiya (MP) 3-0 and her state-mate Neena Praveen put it past Sumitra (Raj) 3-1 in their final group matches to book pre-quarterfinal berths.
Uphill climb ahead for TN
Medium-pacer M Toshith Yadav’s 4/32 came in handy for Andhra to reduce Tamil Nadu to 91/7 in 33 overs on Day 2 of the Vijay Merchant Trophy Under-16 Elite Group D match played at Amingaon grounds, Guwahati, Assam. Resuming from the overnight score of 67 for 4 in 18 overs, Tamil Nadu lost three wickets on Thursday for the addition of just 24 runs. They have to make another 112 runs to bag the all important lead. Brief scores: Andhra 202 vs Tamil Nadu 91/7 in 33 ovs (M Toshith Yadav 4/32, N Sai Charan 2/28).
Pandya cracks ton
Riding on Hari K Pandya’s ton(106, 216b, 9x4, 1x6), Coimbatore posted 252 in 88 overs against Tiruvallur on the opening day of the quarterfinals of the TNCA inter-districts Under-19 tournament played at PSG IMS ‘C’ grounds, Coimbatore. Brief Scores: At PSG IMS ‘C’, Coimbatore: Coimbatore 252 in 88 ovs (R Kishore 61, Hari K Pandya 106, K Darshan Kumar 4/27) vs Tiruvallur 0/1 in 1 ovr; At Kingsley school, Krishnagiri: Krishnagiri 169 in 54.2 ovs (MS Mishal 60, Ishan Chanana 4/38) vs Chengalpattu 110/2 in 34 ovs (M Bharath 64 batting).
Ruvanashri wins gold
Ruvanashri SK (U14 Girls Singles), Nidhi Vajawat & Safwan Abdul Rahman (U19 Mixed Doubles) and B. V. Giridharan & S Srinivasan (60+ Men’s Doubles) secured gold medals in their respective categories for Tamil Nadu at the National Pickleball Tournament in Ahmedabad.
Krishna Karthik, Ranjith Saravanan, Kavya Somesh, Suraiya Quazi (35+ category), Subramanian Naharaj & K Vasudevan (60+ category) earned silver medals, while Ishaan Mehta (U16), Nidhi Vajawat (U19), Sathwika Sama, Venkatesh N, Nagarajan R, Gokul Raghavan & Suraiya Quazi claimed bronze medals in their respective categories.