Tamil Nadu’s Shrikrishna sweeps all four medals

The 17-year-old Chennai boy defeated Sparsh Pherwani of Maharashtra 4-0 in the final. He had earlier won the sub-junior and junior billiards titles and then pocketed the sub-junior title too. “I am happy to have won all the four titles in this championship,” Shrikrishna told DT Next after the junior snooker final. “I want to keep performing every time I go to the table.”

Shrikrishna had beaten Mehul Saini of Haryana 4-0 while Sparsh Pherwani went past his Maharashtra teammate Loukic Pathare 4-3 to play the final. 

Sparsh and Shrikrishna were missing colour balls in the first frame after a few safety exchanges. Meaningful small breaks helped Shrikrishna take the first frame 73-15. 

At 38-51 in the second frame, Sparsh had a chance for a good break which he missed. Shrikrishna capitalized on it and won 74-42 after a few shots. With two reds on the table and on a break of 43, Shrikrishna missed potting pink while trying to cannon on the two pinned reds in the third frame. 

Subsequently, Shrikrishna had a fluke snooker advantage and gained points to put the score at 57-20. Shrikrishna won the frame 76-28. Sparsh played a bad shot leaving a red to the centre pot with which Shrikrishna made a high quality break of 64 missing a simple red to the center pot. 

After a few more exchanges, Sparsh shook hands at 76-17 closing out the match. This is Shrikrishna’s first National Junior Snooker title. Earlier, in the semi-final, Mehul’s break of 37 went in vain in the first frame with the score at 43-41. Mehul clearly had the opportunity of taking the frame which Shrikrishna walked away with potting brown to pink and Shrikrishna leading 1-0. Both the players missed openings in the second frame. Missing black thrice during the third frame cost Mehul the frame while Shrikrishna accumulated with smaller breaks. With blue at one ball, Shrikrishna won the third frame comfortably at 81-30. Mehul played more and more erratic shots in the fourth frame giving away some openings to Shrikrishna and the later with his impeccable potting focused to make it to final for the first time. Anupama Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu defeated Lahiri of AP 2-1 and got the bronze medal in junior billiards.