Nikhil ghadge

CCI Snooker Classic: Madhya Pradesh cueist Nikhilesh Pillai potted fluently to overcome home challenger Amitesh Goenka 3-0 in a first-round match of the CCI Snooker Classic 2024 at the CCI’s Sir Wilson Jones billiards hall here on Tuesday.

The Jabalpur player tactfully constructed a break of 64 points in the first frame which set the tone for his 89-18, 77-43, 74-10 win in the Rs 12.5 lakh prize-money event organised by the Cricket Club of India.

Seasoned campaigner Siddharth Parikh also showed great touch and rolled in 65 point break in the opening frame and went on to tame Hardik Kariya by a convincing 3-0 (89-18, 77-43, 74-10) victory in a second-round encounter. Meanwhile, Nikhil Saigal faced quite a stiff challenge from Hyderabad’s Abed Sayed and managed to scrape through by a tight 3-2 (24-64, 64-42, 62-37, 12-53, 53-48) win to advance to the third round. Saigal made a break of 49 in the third and won a close fifth to seal his win.