Shrikrishna emerges champion of the YMCA Madras snooker tournament

Though the scores show a one-sided contest, Varun Kumar lifted his game at times during the three-hour match. Shrikrishna, the National sub-junior champion won 67-51, 85-1, 78-50, 19-61, 88-22, 95-01. 

The Tamil Nadu State champion Varun Kumar stretched Shrikrishna in the first frame after conceding early lead.  As both the players resorted to safety play, in which Shrikrishna excelled and led 42-16, Varun fought back to narrow the lead to 10 points. The Railway player was in position to take the frame, but he missed the pink trailing at 51-61 and handed the frame to his opponent. 

The second frame was the easiest for Shrikrishna. With an initial break of 76, he took a 2-0 lead. He looked in control while potting during his break and also positioned himself to complete a century break when he missed a red.

Varun came back strongly in the third frame leading 17-0 after Shrikrishna committed a couple of fouls. From 15-17, Shrikrishna got a small but useful break of 14 to go ahead. From 37-41, Varun compiled a break of 13 to take back the lead (50-41). It was the turn of Shrikrishna to seize the chance and he did that with a break of 16 to surge ahead 57-50).  Down to the colours, Shrikrishna knocked off all but the pink and black when Varun potted the wrong ball and gave the frame to Shrikrishna. 

Varun came into the match again in the fourth frame as he took a 25-1. He never allowed Shrikrishna to settle down and pocketed the frame with small breaks. 

Safety play was the order in the fifth frame opened by Shrikrishna. Varun went out of position on 17 and played safety. That left Shrikrishna in a position to clear the table and he did that easily with a break of 88. 

Safety shots let Varun down in the sixth frame while selling the red to Shrikrishna, who came up with small breaks to run up a lead of 55-0 with six reds still on the table. Varun had an opening which he played too soft to control the cue ball for black and missed the red. That was enough for Shrikrishna to finish off the frame and match. Shrikrishna had breaks of 30, 25 and 40 in the sixth frame. 

The highest break of the tournament was made by Rafath Habib, who took home the prize for the achievement.