Doha: The duo of Pankaj Advani and Manan Chandra led the Indian team to a wonderful fightback and upstage Pakistan in the final of the inaugural IBSF Snooker Team World Cup on Saturday.
India found themselves in all sorts of trouble when they down 0-30 in the third frame after trailing 0-2 in the best-of-five final, which was played on Friday night. But their hopes were reignited courtesy a 39 break from Manan Chandra and a good clearance from Advani.
Advani, despite trailing 1-20 in the fourth frame against Babar Masih came back with a bang to control the game by clearing the table with a 69 break. This levelled terms between India and Pakistan and it all went down to the final frame to figure out who would emerge as the inaugural champions.
Chandra and Muhammad Asif had a tough battle but the former didn’t let go of any opportunity to score and changed gears easily. As the game progressed, Chandra needed the green to be safe in the match leaving Asif requiring snookers. Eventually, the Indian got the better of Asif who conceded the match with a long pot on the brown.
The Indians had got off to a poor start in the final with Masih getting the better of Chandra 73-24 in the opener and things got worse when Asif beat Advani in the second frame on the black ball 61-56.
India from then on needed to win every frame from then, after trailing 0-2 and their performance in the third frame lifted their spirits when both the Indians battled it out winning it 72-47 in what was doubles match.
Said Advani, “After it became 2-0 in the favour of Pakistan, we knew our chances of winning were slim and had our task cut out. After winning the doubles frame we saw a glimmer of hope and knew now it was up to us to dig deep and individually win both our singles matches to pull off a Houdini.”
“Manan played exceptional snooker especially in the crucial deciders of the semifinal and final, when it mattered most. I’m really happy for him to win his first world title,” Advani added, who now has a total of 19 world titles to his name.