PANAJI: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) won the deciding frame against ONGC to bag the snooker team title at the 17th PSPB Inter-Unit Billiards & Snooker Championships 2021-22 at Clube Tennis de Gasper Dias, Miramar-Goa.
Team BPCL strategised to send their player Kreishh Gurbaxani against Pankaj Advani of ONGC. Initially, it appeared to be a wrong choice as Pankaj instantly posted a break of 73 points to win the frame 82-08. Admirably, Kreishh made a strong comeback in the second frame and obtained an initial lead which he maintained very well to win the frame 92-22 and levelled the match 1-1.
For the second set, Shahbaaz Adil Khan of BPCL took on Sourav Kothari of ONGC. In the first frame, Shahbaaz restricted Sourav on 4 points to win 67-04. In the second frame also, Shahbaaz obtained an initial lead but Sourav made a remarkable recovery not only to chase but to defeat Shahbaaz 62-35.
For the third set, Rupesh Shah of ONGC put on check Manan Chandra of BPCL and won the first frame comfortably 71-08 but in the second frame Manan reversed it by winning 82-32 and took the match to the final deciding frame.
For the decider, ONGC sent Pankaj Advani and to counter him BPCL sent Kreishh Gurbaxani. Kreishh applied the same strategy as in the first set and put Advani on the backfoot. Kreishh first obtained 24 points lead and then opted for some safe visits.
Again Kreishh scored 30-odd points to cement the lead, but on an opening Advani attempted a good recovery to make 32 points but he missed on a crucial position that allowed Kreishh to raise his lead leaving Advani in a situation where he required multiple snookers. Though Advani tried a few times and when a foul occurred on brown, Advani had no other choice rather shake hands with Kriesh to congratulate him.
