Siddharth Parikh administrated a silent coup when he snatched a unbelievable win against 15 times world champion Pankaj Advani. To beat a player of his class and talent, you need grit, pluck, heroics and above all share of luck which was evident in there grueling six frame quarter- finals in the Billiards Nationals.

Pankaj wanted to assert his supremacy in the nationals which according to many he consider his birth right. The 150 format is rather tricky and daunting as Pankaj found to his chagrin. Only once did he falter in this high tension match when his missed rather easy cannon in trying to obtain top table. Siddharth from here dominated the proceedings without giving a semblance of a chance to the world champion, registering break of 90 and 140. Prior to that luck smiled more often for Siddharth. It was a day which he is not likely to forget in a huff. Today he cornered Mr. Billiards.   

In a sensational upset Dhwaj Haria, a youngster from Ahmedabad, accounted for Asian Billiards champion Dhruv Sitawala in a cracker of a match. In a ding dong battle for supremacy Dhwaj shot into an early 2-0 lead in the best of 5 frames up making a flowing break of 130. Defeat was lurking for the Asian Champion when he pulled all his resources to come out with stellar runs of 144 and 143 to restore parity. At that stage everyone thought that Dhwaj would run out of steam but he chalked a spectacular unfinished 151 to clinch the match in the decider. Dhruv Sitawala is known for his prowess in Billiards and is capable of beating the mightiest in the game.

Continuing his winning streak Dhwaj sent Devendra Joshi to the cleaners by virtue of a 4-2 win to storm into the semi-finals. Joshi was on a song when he accumulated a break of 135 when he muffed an easy red paving the way for Dhwaj with 89 unfinished. In the melee nobody noticed B. Bhaskar’s win over Shankar Rao.

Upsets were galore in this Indore Nationals which has seen untimely exit of Alok Kumar, Ashok Shandilya, Devendra Joshi and above all India’s pride and joy Pankaj Advani ! What more one could ask for! The Emerald Heights International School is a fantastic venue for a tournament of this nature.   

The Results :

(Quarterfinals) : Dhwaj Hariya (Guj) bt Devendra Joshi (PSPB) 4-2 (150-109, 34-150, 71-151, 150-57, 151-40, 151-135; Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt Pankaj Advani (ONGC) 4-2 (150-4, 52-151, 0-150, 151-61, 150-94, 150-0; B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Jaiveer Dhingra (Mah) 4-0 (150-112, 150-95, 152-79, 150-35; Sourav Kothari (Ben) bt Sankar (AP) 4-0 (15-30, 150-18, 151-136, 150-80).