Kothari earns India a silver in world billiards championship

Bengaluru, October 28: India's Sourav Kothari won silver in the World Billiards championship (100-up format) held in Leeds, England.

In the best-of-15 frames final at Northern Snooker Centre Club, England's David Causier beat Kothari 8-4 ((100-20, 100(73)-28, 100(88unf)-71, 100-91(86), 54-100, 100(96unf)-51, 100(96unf)-09, 90-100(87), 34-100, 100-99(95), 05-100(90), 100-00).

Two more Indian cueists ended up on podium with both world No.3 Siddharth Parikh and three-time world champion, Rupesh Shah clinching a bronze apiece.

Rupesh lost to Causier 4-7 in the semifinals while Parikh went down to Kothari 5-7 in an all-Indian last-four encounter.

National champion Kothari did not have a good start in the final and was down four by frames quickly.

But with the aid of an unfinished break of 69, Kothari came back strongly in the fifth frame.

Causier won the next two frames to take a 6-1 lead. But Kothari took the next two to reduce the deficit.

The tenth frame was the most decisive of all as Causier won 100-99 despite a break of 95 from Kothari.

Though the Gujarat boy took the next frame which included a break of 90, it was all over in the next frame in which he was blanked.

The long-up format of the championship began on Saturday (October 28). The final is slated for on November 1.