Sourav Kothari is a snooker aficionado but he attained great heights in billiards when he won his second National title by easily trouncing Siddharth Parikh by five games to two in a rather one side final at The Emerald Heights International School at Indore.

Sourav raced to an impressive lead of 4-0 in the best of nine frames. He was at the verge of making a complete wash out of the finals when lethargy, excitement and fatigue started creeping in his game.

A comedy of errors ensued and the frame went to Siddharth by default. Soon the lead was reduced to just two frames when Sourav played perfect top table game and floating white technique to his advantage.

He is lucky to have National coach as his father where he gets all the physiological grooming at his back and call. He had taught him all the rudiments of the game and now he is making him a tough nut to crack.

Sourav said, “The victory against Pankaj Advani had been a big boost to Parikh’s confidence and I was aware of his reputation. He likes to play calmly. For me, it was a question of adapting and my father had told me a few things about how to control the balls and the shots. I just played my normal game and tried hard to keep the pressure out of the way.”

It is this very training which helped him to overcome Parikh when he was threatening to take the game away from him.

For Parikh this tournament is very special as he got the scalp of redoubtable Pankaj Advani. Parikh said of the final, “The pressure of playing my first final was playing on my mind. I started to play game late but it was not the same as against Pankaj Advani. Sourav was solid today.” On his semifinal, Parikh said, “It was my best day in billiards. I love playing the table top game. It is my forte.”

This National will be known to have many topsy-turvy games to expose the glorious uncertainty associated with this format. It is good for the game and the players who comes to know that no one is invincible. This is how the cookie crumbles. Let us hope that it will continue to crumble. It will have the desired tonic with this game.