ADVANI LOSES IN ASIAN SNOOKER SUMMIT CLASH
DOHA: India’s top cueist Pankaj Advani lost to China’s Lv Haotian in the summit clash of Asian Snooker Championship here as he failed in his bid to win the continental double of billiards and snooker titles in the same year. Advani lost 3-6 in the final and it meant that he could not become the first player to win both Asian titles in Billiards and Snooker in same calendar year. removed Karun Nair, who missed a sweep with the ball striking his back leg for a plumb leg before wicket decision.
The hosts suffered a blow when in-form wicketkeeper batsman Uthappa picked up a knock and had to leave the field with Jackson -- playing in place of Piyush Chawla -taking over the gloves in the 10th over. Iyer and Samson did not hit a boundary for 46 balls before the latter brought up his fifty with a six off Kuldeep Yadav over the square leg boundary. The duo engineered a 75-run partnership for the second wicket before Samson tried to play across the line and was plumb in front off the bowling of Umesh Yadav (1/38). Iyer at the other end, took time to settle down before finally looking to accelerate by hitting Umesh for two back-toback fours. Yusuf Pathan made a hash of the first one, failing to stop the innocuous ball. Rishabh Pant (6) did not last long, adjudged LBW unluckily when the ball was going down leg off Coulternile’s delivery. In the same over, Iyer was sent back just three short of his half century by the Australian. Brief scores: Delhi: 160/6 (Sanju Samson 60, Shreyas Iyer 47, Kagiso Rabada 2/20). Kolkata: 161/3 (Gautam Gambhir 71, Robin Uthappa 59, CoulterNile 3/34).