Reigning champion and Maharashtra number one Sparsh Pherwani of Khar Gymkhana had a mixed day. Pherwani started the day well as he defeated Bombay Gymkhana’s Walter Vaz 3-1 but later suffered a 2-3 defeat at the hands of Ibrahim Sheikh of Vashi in Group-A round-robin league match of the Senior men’s snooker event of the BSAM organized Maharashtra State Junior Snooker and Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg 1) Championship – 2019, played at the Bombay Gymkhana billiards room on Wednesday.
Pherwani was in control against Vaz romped to a 58-52, 53-19, 36-61 and 60-28 victory. He was unable to strike the kind of form and faced quite a challenge from Sheikh who put up an impressive performance and stayed focused in the decider to register a stunning 3-2 ((61-26, 59-03, 26-58, 18-67 and 58-10) win.
Anand Raghuvanshi (Hindu Gym), Vishal Vaya (KVSC) and Hassan Badami (CCI) easily came through their opening group matches without dropping a frame. In a Group-B encounter, Raghuvanshi tamed Avenish Shah (MCF) 3-0 (57-16, 57-30 and 57-38), while the flambouyant Vishal Vaya blanked Rishabh Thakkar (Otters Club) 3-0 (59-45, 60-23 and 52-17) in a Group-C match and in Group-D, Hassan Badami outshone Sahil Kakad (Khar Gym) 3-0 (81-25, 74-18 and 63-31).