Defending champion Sourav Kothari found West Bengal’s Aamer Hussain a tough nut to crack in a Group A league match of the 82nd National billiards championship at the BRC on Tuesday as he fought back from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
Earlier, he defeated Shahbaaz Adil Khan 3-0.
Rafath Habib of Railways was hot on Kothari’s heels and their clash will identify the group topper.
In other groups, favourites continued to play well but seventh-seeded Malkeet Singh of Railways was stunned by Subrat Das of Odisha 3-2 and later by Nikhil Ghadge of Railways 3-0.
Alok Kumar of PSPB won both his matches and warmed up for the knockout stage. The National runner-up is expected to top Group B.
The results:
Group A: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Aamer Hussain (WB) 27-101(83), 90(51)-102, 100(53)-2, 100-30, 101-29; Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt C. Vijayaram (TN) 102-18, 100-74, 85-100, 102-35; Rafath Habib (RSPB) bt S. Shankar Rao (AP) 101-74, 100-21, 100-86; Habib bt Vijayaram 102-41, 101-43, 101-80; Kothari bt Adil Khan 101(50)-31, 102(82)-38, 100-84.
Group B: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Ankit Kariwala (WB) 101(67)-16, 100(52)-79, 101-58; Kumar bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 101-2, 101(92)-9, 100-15; Kumar bt Vishal Madan (Mah) 101-64, 77-100, 100-64, 13-101, 100-6.
Group C: B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Kankan Shamsi (UP) 100-27, 100-8, 100-55; Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) bt Ketan Chawla (MP) 100(55)-82, 103(56)-88, 100-38; Bhaskar bt Aditya Agrawal (RSPB) 100(67)-50 (47), 85(70)-101(54), 100(100)-0, 100-42; Haria bt Himanshu Jain (Tel) 100-59, 87-101, 102-59, 85-101, 103(90)-2.
Group D: S. Mumtaz Ali (Jhr) bt Manish Jain (WB) 31-101, 100-34, 100-61, 100(89)-0; Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt Abhimanyu Gandhi (Guj) 101(74)-2, 100-65, 104(93)-6; Jain bt Arun Agarwal (Mah) 100(61)-69(57), 100(90)-69(61), 101(53)-70.
Group E: Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Neeraj Kumar (RSPB) 101(63)-0, 100(100)-12, 100(78)-26; Shyam Jagtiani (WB) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 102(59)-41, 100-31, 102-6; Siddharth Parikh (RSPB) bt Kumar 102(43)-84(56), 100-20, 101-4; Rupesh bt Amit Sharma (Del) 101(81)-0, 101(72)-16, 89-100(65), 100(100)-2.
Group F: Brijesh Damani (PSPB) bt Chandu Kansodaria (Mah) 101-24, 101-30, 101-31; Ashok Shandilya (RSPB) bt D. Rajkumar (Kar) 101-41, 101-36, 101(71)-20; Damani bt Hritik Jain (MP) 45-101, 102-54, 100-86, 100-54; Shandilya bt Kansodaria 100(53)-71(63), 100-0, 100-0.
Group G: Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 101(91)-9, 101-50, 101(79)-73; Nikhil Ghadge (RSPB) bt Malkeet Singh (RSPB) 100-14, 100(57)-86, 100-46; Joshi bt Nikhil Ghadge (RSPB) 101-82, 102-53, 98-101, 101(101)-31; Das bt Malkeet 101-93, 96-101, 64-102, 101-96, 100-68.
Group H: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt S. Simhachalam (RSPB) 102(102)-0, 101-72, 100(51)-55; S. Shrikrishna (TN) bt Durga Prasad (RSPB) 100-55, 57-105(60), 100-50, 100(83)-66; Jaiveer Dhingra (Mah) bt Subodh Lahiri (UP) 100-25, 102(56)-18, 101-80.
