Pankaj Advani wins seventh billiards world title

October 29, 2012

Pankaj-Advani

Leeds, October 29: Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani proved his class once again as he notched up his seventh World Billiards Championship title after comprehensively beating defending champion and seasoned Englishman Mike Russell in the final here.

The celebrated cueist stamped his dominance with 1895-1216 win over the local favourite.

Fresh from his resounding 881-281 victory over compatriot Dhruv Sitwala in the semifinals, Pankaj raced into a lead with a century break of 147 and a double century break of 298 within the first hour of the five-hour long encounter.

The experienced Mike then scored a break of 397 to equalise but Pankaj fought back strongly with breaks of 131 and 92 to take the lead in the first half of the match.

Pankaj started the second half with another century break of 128 and followed this with breaks of 94 and 108 to cement his lead over Mike.

With a final century break of 119, Pankaj beat the 11-time champion to clinch his fourth world title in the timed format. It was a case of history repeating itself for Pankaj who had beaten Mike 2030-1253 in the finals of the World Professional Billiards Championship in 2009 at the same venue.

Dedicating the title to his mother, an elated Pankaj said, “I am so pleased to have won my seventh world title. I took a gamble while choosing to play the World Championships here in Leeds and not the International Championship on the Professional Snooker tour and I am glad that paid off in my favour.

“I took a tough decision earlier this year to play both Billiards and Snooker at the highest level, and I am glad that I have been able to maintain top form in both the forms.”

“This victory like every other shall be treasured yet has its own special meaning given the unique challenges I have faced this year. This win is a testament that if you follow your heart, nothing’s impossible,” Pankaj added.

Pankaj has been in stupendous form through the tournament, remaining unbeaten in the earlier rounds to proceed to the knock outs as the top seed in both Points and Timed formats.

Pankaj bounced back from his loss to Peter Gilchrist in the quarterfinals of the points format and showed great composure in his quarterfinal encounter against Rupesh Shah in the timed format which he won with a 940-point margin in 180 minutes to storm into the semi-finals where he beat fellow Indian Dhruv Sitwala.

This is the eighth overall world title for Pankaj and his seventh in billiards.

His first world title in billiards came in 2005 when he created history by becoming the first cueist ever to win the Timed and Points format of the IBSF World Billiards Championship in the same year, a feat he repeated in 2008.

He also won the IBSF World Billiards Championship (Timed Format) in 2007 and won World Professional Billiards title 2009.

The only active player to compete at the highest level in both Billiards and Snooker, Pankaj made the tough choice of picking the World Billiards Championship over International Snooker Championships due to a clash in the dates of the two tournaments.



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News Network
March 7,2020

Melbourne, Mar 7: Ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup against Australia, India spinner Poonam Yadav said that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has given her a lot of support.

"Harmanpreet has been of immense support. When I got hit for a six in the first over, she came to me and said, 'Poonam, you're one of the most experienced players in the team, and we expect better of you'," Poonam said.

The 28-year-old experienced bowler has played 68 shortest format games for India and taken 94 wickets at an average of 22.66.

She has been in devastating form throughout the tournament and has bagged nine wickets so far.

"So, that kind of stirred something within me. I told myself if my captain has that much faith in me, I should be able to make a comeback," she said.

"I took a wicket in the very next ball, and didn't look back since. Now when I look back at that moment, it means so much in the context of my individual performance and run to the final," she added.

In the opening game against Australia at Sydney Showground, Poonam came within a whisker of the third hat-trick in Women's T20 World Cup history, dismissing Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry before Jess Jonassen was dropped.

The final of the tournament will be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 8 -- International Women's Day.

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News Network
February 11,2020

Mt. Maunganui (New Zealand), Feb 11: KL Rahul struck a combative 112 but New Zealand completed a 3-0 whitewash of India by winning the third ODI by five wickets, here on Tuesday.

Rahul helped India recover from a shaky start to post a challenging 296 for 7 but the Kiwis overhauled the target with 17 balls to spare.

This is the first whitewash that India has suffered in an ODI series in more than a decade.

Sent in to bat, India were down 62 for 3 in the 13th over after the dismissals of Mayank Agarwal (1), captain Virat Kohli (9) and Prithvi Shaw (40) but Rahul got a useful ally in in-form Shreyas Iyer (62) to take India to a competitive total.

Rahul, who hit nine fours and two sixes during his 113-ball innings, and Iyer stitched exactly 100 runs from 18.2 overs for the fourth wicket to revive the Indian innings.

After the end of the promising innings of Iyer, Rahul shared another 107 runs for the fifth wicket with Manish Pandey (42).

The Kiwis were off to a confident start in their chase with Martin Guptill (66) and Henry Nicholls (80) and putting on a 106-run stand. However, wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets to bring India back in the game.

Colin de Grandhomme (58) and Tom Latham (32), though, took their side past the finish line with an unbeaten 80-run partnership.

Brief Scores:

India: 296 for 7 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 112, Shreyas Iyer 62; Hamish Bennett 4/64).

New Zealand: 300 for 5 in 47.1 overs. (H Nicholls 80, M Guptill 66; Y Chahal 3/47).

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News Network
June 2,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 2: Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has said that he was ashamed on seeing the training regime of Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

Iqbal said that the incident happened two-three years back as he thought to himself that why he cannot do the same even when he is the same age as Kohli.

"I must say this, it is not because I am talking to an Indian commentator, India is our neighbour so whatever things they do, it affects Bangladesh as well. We follow what is happening in India, when India changed its approach towards fitness, it impacted Bangladesh the most," Iqbal told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I have no shame in admitting this, when I saw Virat Kohli running around two-three years ago, I was ashamed of myself, I thought this is a guy who is probably my age, but he is training so much and I have not doing even half of it. We have a great example in our team as well, Mushfiqur Rahim manages himself well regarding fitness," he added.

During his initial days of international cricket, Kohli was fond of chicken which he has admitted several times during media interaction.

But in 2013, the 31-year-old batsman intentionally shifted his focus to fitness, diet, and training.

Now he has become punctual about his diet which has given him a different character on and off the field.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have also kept on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar managed to call time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings.

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