Shrikrishna strikes bronze in Asian snooker

A student of Vivekananda College, Chennai, Shrikrishna was the only one to play both the competitions. Shrikrishna qualified in the U-21 Snooker by winning two of his three matches and losing one. He also qualified in the Men’s Billiards, winning all three of his three matches in the round robin stage. The Chennai lad was seeded No. 7 in the U-21 Snooker and No. 3 in the Men’s Billiards.

He started with a last-12 match in snooker in the morning, which was followed by quarter-finals in billiards against Pankaj Advani in the afternoon and the quarter-finals in snooker on the same day. Shrikrishna was pitched against Advani, seeded sixth, in the men’s billiards quarter-finals. Having missed his lunch, Shrikrishna complained of knocking headache during the match and lost 2-5.

He could only compile a 56 break while Pankaj made breaks of 93, 87, 51, 99 and 71 in the best of 7. The scores were (11-102(93), 100-51, 64(56)-102(87), 0-100(51), 100-69, 42-101(99), 25-103(71). He met Yasan Al Hadad of Syria, seeded second, in the snooker quarter-finals. Yasan’s potting was outstanding and so was his safety play, giving a difficult time to Shrikrishna who won 5-4. 

 In the semi-finals, Shrikrishna played Zhou Jianbo of China, seeded sixth. Both were missing the shots and going out of position too often, which is far below their standards. The expressions from both players during the match indicated there could have been some inappropriate behaviour off the balls after their shots.

Both were not able to post any significant breaks. Shrikrishna lost to Jianbo 3-5 with the scores (80-18, 1-90, 62-40, 58-71, 61-48, 45-75, 58-47, 78-43). On his preparation for this tournament, Shrikrishna said: “Well I could have worked out a little more on my fitness; less said the better (and laughs). However, I thank SPARRC Institute and Dr Kannan Pughazhedi and team for taking care of my fitness. My college, Vivekananda, has been very supportive. I thank them for assisting me with my tournament schedules, attendance, encouragement and also the focus they drive me towards my education.”

When asked his experience, Shrikrishna said “It is surely a challenge to play billiards and snooker matches back-to-back. I surely enjoyed playing both because it is my passion. Especially on a tight pockets like Wiraka M1 and the fast Hainsworth cloth, the strength ranges are completely different from the practice environments back in Chennai. It helped in discovering myself and my capabilities.”