The Hindu : Alok Kumar pulls off a rare double

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Alok Kumar pulls off a rare double

By Kirti Patil

GWALIOR, FEB. 18. Alok Kumar accomplished an exceptional double with a 7-1 win against World champion Pankaj Advani, in the 70th National snooker championship at the Jiwaji University here on Wednesday.

Tying down Advani with an over-cautious snooker, Alok Kumar drew out the advantage with a vintage preciseness he is famous for. Winning the crucial fourth frame, on the black ball, just about described the way the match was headed to, before Alok Kumar won 61-43, 93-11, 59-50, 77-70, 46-14, 83-14, 21-65, 70-38.

"I didn't expect such an easy match, but I took it frame by frame,'' said Alok Kumar. "The key to the match was that I kept him tight throughout,'' he added.

Advani indeed was tied down by the safety play, performed to the perfection by Alok Kumar. For a player of his calibre, Advani should have been ready for almost all the possible situations. But this was something he may have hardly expected from Alok Kumar, who so far had played an open game in the championship.

In the final, he changed his gears so well that even Advani failed to understand the slowness of the game.

In the first frame, both the cueists went neck and neck (43-50) before Advani missed a blue at the centre pocket and sold the frame, almost. Alok took the blue and with three reds on, he went about making a break of 22 to take the opening frame.

Besides tying down Advani, Alok should thank his luck. Balls favoured him immensely, with several flukes throughout the match while Advani was unlucky.

Alok started the second frame with a break of 23 and after Advani struggled to get his safety right, Alok got a fluke red at the top left. He cashed on that and made a break of 41 to extend the lead further.

"Balls did roll in my favour. No denying that,'' said Alok Kumar.

The roll went on for next four frames, though Advani made it tight in the fourth, but only just. A break of 44 with four black and two blue balls gave Advani a good start to strike back at Alok. But his safety shots wouldn't give him the desirable snooker as the cue ball would make canons and disturb the positions. Alok replied with a break of 30 with three blacks and a blue and the scores stood tied 59-59 with the colour series remaining on the table. A few fouls by Alok earned Advani negative points, but the champion found a fluke brown at the bottom right pocket and made the clearance.

Once Alok took 4-0 lead the fate of the match was all but known. Could there have been any other result? Well, none thought so even though Advani has had won from such a precarious situation in the past. Advani was 1-4 in the World championship final before he resurrected his fortunes and beat the Pakistani opponent.

So Alok took no chances and kept the pressure throughout. His pumping of fists and pointing towards the players' balcony showed his obstinacy. The players were all pitching in for the defending champion Advani to undo what was happening.

The way Alok — a fighter in his own class — kept his tempo up, was remarkable.

The win made his only the fifth player in the history of the championship to complete the double. P.K. Deb (1939), T.A. Selvaraj (1949), M.J.M. Lafir (1977), and Geet Sethi (1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987) were the past winners of the double title.

Rishabh beats Rafath for third place

Rishabh Thukral salvaged some pride by beating Asian Games gold medallist Rafath Habib in the play-off for the third place here this morning.

Thukral had struck form at a right time when he beat Yasin Merchant in the quarterfinals. Against Alok Kumar the next afternoon, Thukral even failed to open his cards as he lost 0-6. The Delhi cueist buried the past and played fluently against Rafath. Striking an opening break of 45 in the first frame, Thukral held his own ground and won 4-2.

The results (figures in parenthesis denote breaks):

Final: Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Pankaj Advani (Kar) 61 (22)-43 (18), 93 (41)-11, 59 (28)-50, 77 (30)-70 (44), 46-14, 83 (41)-14; 21 (21)-65 (57); 70 (56)-38.

Play-off for third place: Rishabh Thukral (Del) bt Rafath Habib (Rly) 66 (45)-31 (28), 51-64, 55 (16, 15)-54 (22), 79 (49)-47 (16), 43 (17)-64 (39), 62 (36)-14 (14).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport