Gandhi pockets ‘Rockets’ into quarters

Otters Club cueist Abhimanyu Gandhi once again produced encouraging performances to fashion defending champions, Otters ‘Rockets’ passage to the quarter-final round of the Otters Club BSAM Mumbai Z3-Snooker League 2018, at the Otters Club Billiards Room. Gandhi played the lead role to perfection as he defeated Rajeev Sharma twice, first at the first 15-red singles opening frame and then again in the fourth frame to shape the fortunes of his team’s 3-1 win against Malabar Hill Club’s MHCL ‘Madcaps’ in a pre-quarter-final match.

On an adjacent table, Radio Club budding sensation, Shahyan Razmi continued to shine bright as Radio ‘Fusion’ overpowered Chembur Gymkhana’s CG ‘Titans’ by a quick 3-0 margin in another last 16 encounter.

Gandhi (+15) with a cool calculated approach outshone Malabar Hill’s seasoned cueist Sharma (+40) winning the first frame by a 106-78 points margin to provide Otters the early advantage. Later, Otters Club skipper Zenul Arsiwala and doubles partner Nabil Lakdawala (+24) were in control against the Malabar Hill duo of Anshuman Loyalka and Nitin Banka (+33) and pulled through by a 80-53 scoreline in the 9-red doubles frame to extend Ottters’ lead to 2-0.

Later, Adil Engineer (+60) up against Rishabh Thakkar (+20) took full advantage of the 40 points handicap as he kept it simple and with some clever play managed to score a 96-72 win in the 15-red singles third frame for Malabar Hill’s first win and to cut Otters lead to 2-1.

Otters Rockets did not waste too much time to wrap up the contest as Gandhi stamped his authority with another polished effort to hand Sharma a 92-75 defeat in fourth frame.