Pandurangaiah impresses

Indian Railways E. Pandurangaiah showed excellent skills and great control as he registered the first century break of the tournament, when he rolled in a superb unfinished 109 run, en route to a facile 3-0 win against Ammar Arsiwala of Otters Club in the second round best-of-five frame match in the Rs 12.25 lakh prize-money CCI All India Open Snooker Championship 2018, and played at the CCI’s Wilson Jones Billiards Room, late on Saturday evening.

Pandurangaiah, who finished runner-up to Pankaj Advani in the National championship last year, was awarded the first frame as his opponent Arsiwala reported late for the match. But, once he got on the table there was no stopping the cueist from Vellore Village in Andhra Pradesh as he hardly gave Arsiwal many visits to the table and the latter scored just six points in the two frames he played.

After easily pocketing the second frame 626, Pandurangaiah was in full flow in the third. He potted steadily and with good accuracy and he also played some brilliant shots to get into position for the next shot or to come out of sticky situations. He hardly put a foot wrong and went on to polish the balls off the table to record the three-figure effort and complete the win.

On the side table, Ishpreet Singh Chadha of Khar Gymkhana recovered after losing a close opening frame to score a 3-1 win against Aditya Bhalla of Delhi in a third round match. The 2016 Asian Under-21 Snooker bronze medal winner, Ishpreet compiled a break fo 60 in the fourth frame to seal a 57-59, 65-0, 59-2, 810 victory to advance to the fourth round.

Otters Club Abhimanyu Gandhi halted the fine winning run of Pune’s Amol Abdagiri pulling off a 3-1 (55-17, 60-65, 73-41, 67-35) in another third round encounter.