Asian Team Snooker Championship 2016: India settle for silver after a nail-biting finale against Iran

Aditya Mehta and Pankaj Advani have impressed throughout the championship(Image: The Hindu)

The Indian snooker team, comprising of Aditya Mehta, Manan Chandra and Padma Shri awardee Pankaj Advani, have just gone down to an evenly matched team from Iran in a befitting thriller of a finale at the Team Snooker event of the 2016 Asian Championship just concluded at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Therefore, India settle for silver at the team competition of the tournament as the gold medal goes to the jubilant Iranian team that features ace cueists Amir Sarkhosh and Soheil Vahedi. The Iranian duo has thus denied the icing-on-the-cake for India after Advani’s individual triumph at the 6-Red competition at the same venue on Sunday.

As the long-drawn contest between two unflinching oppositions unfolded, it never seemed possible to choose a superior party as the advantage kept switching ends throughout the encounter. Despite drawing first blood with 65-53, India lost both the subsequent singles and doubles rounds to trail the Iranian team 1-2.

In the fourth game, it was Pankaj Advani’s brilliance to the rescue that saw India get back even with the 5th round i.e. the decider left to play. In the end, it turned out to be an unfavourable day for the Indians as they lost the final set and had to be content with silver in the tournament.

Iran emerged victorious with a hard-earned result of 3-2 over the second best Indian team.

Final score: Iran beat India 3-2 (53-65(52), 54-07, 77-01, 64-69, 74-40)

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Edited by Staff Editor