Sitwala, of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, surged to his third straight win in the group with a hard fought 454-418 victory over Karnataka-based cueist Venkatesham in the two-hour format contest that was crucial to his progress in the competition.
Former Railways champion Siddharth Parikh registered back-to-back wins by prevailing over former world professional No. 7 Nalin Patel and Maharashtra state selection junior champion Jaiveer Dhingra of ONGC in Group A.
In Group B, world bronze medallist Ashok Shandilya and Maharashtra senior state selection champion Arun Agrawal also recorded their third straight wins to keep their hopes alive.
Results: Group A: Jaiveer Dhingra (ONGC) bt Satbir Narula (CCI) 612-287; Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Nalin Patel (Mah) 500-313; Nalin Patel bt Satbir Narula 729 (125,92,91)-201; Siddharth Parikh bt Jaiveer Dhingra 718(101,121,94)-256.
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Group B: Arun Agrawal (Mah) bt Kekoo Nicholson (CCI) 854(116,90)-293; Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Rohan Jambusaria (Mah) 671(135)-351; Arun Agrawal bt I.H. Manudev (Ktk) 625(114)-409.
Group D: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt K Venkatesham (Rlys) 454-418; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Rupesh Shah (PSPB) 417-395; Rupesh Shah bt K Venkatesham 398(101,91)-363.