TahaaKhan of Pune was down with fever, but he played with plenty of grit to beat Abhishek Bajaj of Mumbai by a close 3-2 score in the best-of-5-frame Group G round-robin league match of the Maharashtra State Senior Snooker & Billiards Selection (leg-1) Championship 2018 here Wednesday.
In a match of fluctuating fortunes played at the Poona Club, Khan started shakily and lost the first frame, but made a strong reply in the second which he won to level scores.
He once against surrendered the initiative as Bajaj snatched the third to take a 2-1 lead.
A determined Khan came back fighting and grabbed the fourth before compiling a crafted break of 40 to win the fifth to carve out a creditable30-67, 63-31, 31-65, 66-33 and 68-41 victory.
Meanwhile,Shivam Arora of Pune and Pankaj Khatri of Nashik, both registered their second successive wins and are assured of progressingto the pre-quarter-final round.
Results: round-robin league:Group-A:Avenish Shah (Mumbai) beat Arun Kumar (Thane) 3-0 (55-47, 52-8, 58-49); Group-B:Shivam Arora (Pune) beat Ashwin Palnitkar (Pune) 3-0 (59-19, 61-52, 81-26); Group-C:Pankaj Khatri (Nashik) beat Rohan Kothare (Aurangabad) 3-0 (80-21, 60-33, 65-16);Pankaj Khatri (Pune) beat Harmehr Mago (Mumbai) 3-2 (61-41, 72-36, 18-67, 28-67, 65-15); Group-F:Aakash Padalikar (Pune) beat Suraj Rathi (Pune) 3-1 (5-115(89), 67-33, 71-45, 61-44); Sparsh Pherwani (Mumbai) beat Luv Boricha (Mumbai) 3-0 (75-27, 82-31, 82-19); Group-G:Rajeev Sharma (Mumbai) beat Abhishek Bajaj (Mumbai) 3-2 (34-65, 44-33, 45-30, 31-70, 65-45);Tahaa Khan (Pune) beat Abhishek Bajaj (Mumbai) 3-2 (30-67, 63-31, 31-65, 66-33, 68-41); Kreishh Gurbaxani (Mumbai) beat Rajeev Sharma (Mumbai) 3-2 (37-68, 50-35, 54-64, 76(48)-38, 61-26); Group-H:Abhimanyu Gandhi (Mumbai) beat Vignesh Sanghvi (Pune) 3-2(23-76, 0-81(65),61-20, 53-8, 52-9).
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