Varun Madan of Delhi crashed out of the National snooker championship after being involved in a three-way tie with Khizar Raoof and Younis Kouchey in Group `A' here today. All finished with two wins each but Raoof (+3) and Kouchey (+2) had a better frame average than Madan (-1).

Indian Snooker’s poster boy Aditya Mehta scored a regulation straight sets win against Anand Raghuvanshi. Aditya demonstrated pluck and elegance in abundance when he outclassed his opponent making sterling breaks of 72, 62 and 60 in a 3-0 washout in the morning. This was Aditya’s second win in a trot and the big breaks were not coming. May be he was saving it for a rainy day.

Ketan Chawla created a minor flutter in the stands when he accounted for six-balls snooker champion Kamal Chawla 45-61, 05-74, 33-48 and 0-74 at Indore Nationals. Ketan after being 1 frame down made a spectacular return in the match registering 2 runs of 52, 73 to snuff his opponent out of the game. Kamal Chawla, after the match, said that the cue ball control of his opponent settled the issue beyond doubt.

Ketan, who is proficient in billiards and snooker, belongs to a rare breed of cueist. He showed his prowess in billiards by inflicting a crushing defeat of 3 – 0 against Siddharth Parekh few days back. Both the Chawlas hail from Madhya Pradesh and know each other’s game pretty well.

S Shrikrishna’s juggernaut halted in this year’s Nationals when he ran into Himanshu Jain in their league encounter. Krishna was over confident and tried few shots which does not exist on the table. He over reached himself and Himanshu cleverly put him on the mat to win 3 – 1. However, the talents Shrikrishna has qualified from his group by virtue of his 2 wins in the Nationals.

Dharminder Lily had no trouble in accounting for Vinayak Agarwal 73-72, 29-76, 76-38 and 64-22. Lily was extremely lucky to escape with a black ball win in the first frame but thereafter he composed himself and played hit and run snooker to win comfortably.

Anurag Giri beat Faisal Khan 100-3, 62-09, 96-00 and 66-51. Anurag struck form in his very first outing on the table with a run of 78. Though Faisal replied with 96 in the third frame but was brilliant only patches. Faisal is a great accumulator of building big breaks but only to flounder after that.

Varun Madan had an easy outing against Ayush Kumar 78-28, 85-08 and 56-44.

Rahul Sachdev, a centurion of yesterday struck form where it mattered most outclassing the stylish Manan Chandra 65-19, 66-16, 68-67. Rahul made useful contribution of 56 and 58 and Manan had a consolation 63 in the last frame.

Rafath Habib had to use his experience and guile in beating Peter Paul 13-73, 72-68, 48-72, 71-48 and 56-20 in a 5 sets thriller.

Pushpinder Singh inflicted a facile 71-05, 74-50 and 69-13 win over Manish Jain. Pushpinder potting is as clean as a whistle and he did not give semblance of a chance to his opponent, making a neat run of 91 in the very first frame to set the ball rolling.

Billiards champion in this nationals demonstrated his all round abilities when he trounced Nitin Sharma 94-29, 79-19, 36-74 and 104-37. He chalked out runs of 94, 79 and 63 in a rather one sided match.