Shandilya and Joshi in summit clash

By M.C. Raman

CHENNAI, FEB. 22. Ashok Shandilya is different from others. His approach is different. His philosophy is different. His game is different. He is not the hot and chilli sauce stuff but something milder and more tasteful like pizza with all the ingredients to boot. It was no wonder that Shandilya, known for his consistently brilliant performances in the last decade, made it to his sixth final after beating Alok Kumar of Punjab 1294-966 in the 67th Khel.com National men's billiards championship here on Thursday.

Ashok's loss to Geet Sethi seems so long ago that it is only vague in memory. After that, the 32-year-old Central Railway officer has won the National titles four times and this year too he is going to face the same rival, Devendra Joshi of Maharashtra, who just about managed to stop Manoj Kothari at 1196-1030, for the top honours on Friday.

These days Ashok is more philosophical and says that nothing rattles him now. ``I enjoy my game now, not bothering about the results. I enjoy being with my family. I have some problems with my profession. Even that does not affect me,'' said the cueist after the match.

He is one player who has taken away the word `pressure' from his dictionary. During the break, after a two hours session, he went for net surfing at the Postal centre. At that stage his lead was not so big (586-395) as Alok was coming back with good breaks like 57, 69 and 107. The Punjab man was not an ordinary challenger and played long shots superbly to make it a tight game.

Ashok could have been the first player to make a double century break, but his white in-off rebounded and even the red stopped close to the other pot. He was unlucky. That break ended at 191, which, however, gave him a solid start (389-198). From then on it was the Railway player who had the upper hand with breaks of 51, 99, 88, 155, 80 and 126.

Alok was stalling him. Still the defending champion had his way. It was only in the final stages that Alok, with a break of 127, cut down the lead to 389 points, half an hour before the bell. It was not beyond Alok's reach and he had another break of 56. But Ashok managed to hang on to the lead.

Joshi made to sweat

Devendra Joshi of Maharashtra took nearly two and half hours to change his gear and accelerate. Even then he found the going tough. ``I don't know what happened. I played horribly. It was a bad day for me,'' said Joshi after the match. Joshi's first decent break of 50 came only in the 49th visit and after that there were only two century breaks (105 and 153) which really saved him. That was also the only bright patch in his game.

Joshi also must thank his stars that Manoj Kothari of Bengal, in the semifinals after a long gap, had nine blank visits in the last one hour. Out of which four of them came when he was trying desperately to make up the gap (1026-1130).

Both Joshi and Manoj were missing easy potting. Joshi, in particular, had a problem in one pocket where his shots rebounded. Initially, both were scrapping for points. Manoj was better with a break of 68 in his 11th visit. Then his best break of 87 came in his 71st visit. Still Manoj made it close. ``I am in the semifinals after a long gap. So I was under pressure.'' said Kothari after the tie.

Other results:

Placing matches (5th to 8th places): B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Rupesh Shah (Guj) 314-145, Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys) bt Arun Agarwal (Maha) 297-198; B. Bhaskar bt Shyam Jagtiani (Rlys) 333-175, Rupesh Shah bt Arun Agarwal 337- 145.

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