Kamal Chawla faces Faisal Khan in CCI snooker final

MUMBAI: India's No.2 cueist Kamal Chawla and in-form Faisal Khan registered contrasting wins on Wednesday to set up the snooker final, in the Cricket Club of India (CCI) Classic Billiards and Snooker Tournament.
Playing dazzling snooker, Faisal, who shocked title favourite Aditya Mehta in the quarterfinals, demolished Delhi-based Pushpender Singh of Railways 5-0 in the best-of-nine frames semifinal.
Bhopal-based Railways cueist Chawla overcame Sourav Kothari of PSPB 5-3 in a tight last-four contest.
Asian Championship bronze medallist Chawla led 2-1 after dropping the opening frame that included a brilliant 89 break in the third frame in reply to Kothari's 76 in the first. He went ahead 3-2 but Kothari drew level to set the stage for a humdinger.
But Chawla capitalised on small but crucial leads in the seventh and eighth frames that left Kothari little room for recovery and a closer finish.
Results:
Semifinals: Kamal Chawla (Rlys) bt Sourav Kothari (PSPB) 9-84(76), 58-33, 89(89)-0, 24-66(47), 57(40)-43, 49-60, 62-31, 59-36; Faisal Khan (Rlys) bt Pushpender Singh (Rlys) 64-42, 71(53)-9, 74(41)-39, 63-14, 76(76)-0.