Internationals Shabbir Dhankot of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka's Prathima Hegde eased into the top of the men's and women's group of four in the Aircel 23rd National tenpin bowling championship at the StarCity Centre here on Saturday.
Joining Prathima and defending champion Sabeena were Nicole Campbell of Maharashtra and Anuradha Sarda of Delhi, who pipped Karnataka's Judy Bobby to make the grade.
Prathima had games of 212, 247, 168 and 202 in long oil conditions while Sabeena managed 192, 226, 203 and 200 at the same point.
In short oil games, Prathima rattled the pins for scores of 178, 147, her lowest, 182 and then a high of 243 in the fourth game to sail comfortably to the top.
Sabeena had scores of 180, 177, 189 and then again 189 in the fourth game. She had a combined total of 3831 pin falls averaging 191.55, while Sabeena managed 3793 at 189.65.
Dhankot bowled steadily all along playing with immense concentration to notch up scores of 217, 225, 192 and 236 in long oil and 173, 213, 207 and 205 in the tougher short oil conditions.
Vikesh Veer Jain of Delhi, Rahul Solanki (TN) and Aakash Ashok Kumar (Karnataka) completed the foursome.