Chennai Strikers recovered from their opening day setback for a facile victory, while Hyderabad Hustlers made a winning debut in the Indian Cue Masters League here at the Rajpath Club on Sunday.
Chennai's icon player and India's superstar Pankaj Advani notched up two sweet victories, the first in the mixed snooker doubles in the company of Vidya Pillai and the second in the icon match, the snooker singles, against Kelly Fisher, according to a release.
His team-mate Dharmender Lilly too was on a roll, winning his singles pool match against Malkeet Singh and then partnering with the in-form Pillai in the pool doubles.
The 16-time world champion, Advani, showed his class as he rounded up the first frame easily, running away to a 32-0 lead; Kelly fought back to 19 but ran out of time; she put up a better display in the second frame, jumping to 26-6 lead as Advani made a couple of unforced errors.
But with just one red and all the colours left on the table, he went on a pocketing spree to take the frame 36-26 and the crucial point.
He was ably complemented by Pillai in the mixed doubles, as they trounced the pair of Kelly Fisher and Manan Chandra 20-5, 22-18.
Delhi Don's Manan Chandra got his team the solitary point, getting the better of Faisal Khan in the snooker singles shootout. But by then, the fat lady had already sung.
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In the second tie, the duo from Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Chawla and Amee Kamani, held on to their nerves to beat the highly rated Andrew Pagett and Daria Sirotina 2-0.
The Welsh Wizard Pagett seemed to be sailing against Iran's Amir Sarkhosh in the clash of the Icons. But an unforced error in the first frame, when he was ahead by 9 points, saw him succumb to a 22-31 defeat.
In the second frame too despite a good start, Pagett made another mistake to leave the table wide open. Sarkhosh capitalised on the opportunity to win 41-28 for a 2-0 victory.
Amir Sarkhosh's swept aside veteran Alok Kumar's challenge in straight frames to give his side a 2-0 lead. Alok Kumar did fight back with Daria to brush aside the pair of Anuj Uppal and Amee Kamani to bring them back into the tie.
But Sarkhosh won the Icon clash against Pagett to seal the tie. World No. 2 Indian, Kamal Chawla, then beat Kings' Brijesh Damani silence the home fans with a comprehensive 4-1 victory.
--IANS
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