Geet Sethi survives a scare from Raj

True to his billing, D Raj Kumar lost the first two games to Geet Sethi, 31-101, 27-100, on Day II of the 76th National Billiards Championship. But, an error by referee M.K. Sharma in the third game meant the focus was on the non-entity from Karnataka.

True to his billing, D Raj Kumar lost the first two games to Geet Sethi, 31-101, 27-100, on Day II of the 76th National Billiards Championship. But, an error by referee M.K. Sharma in the third game meant the focus was on the non-entity from Karnataka.

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The score in the third game of this Group B match was 79 but Sharma announced it as 89. With a break of 11, Raj Kumar won 100-36. This led to controversy and proceedings came to a halt for almost 20 minutes.

Excited at being able to snatch a game from the nine-time world champion, an upbeat Raj Kumar then drew parity, winning 101-47 with small breaks of 25, 25 and 32. At 2-2, all eyes were on table No. 2 as the event’s biggest upset was a distinct possibility. But a cool Sethi allowed Kumar just four points and wrested the game 100-4.

Earlier, defending champion Pankaj Advani brushed aside Abhishek Raj 101-36, 101-25, 1010-43, Ashok Shandilya overcame Chetan Charba 101-32, 105-23, 100-40 while Sourav Kothari beat Saket Saurabh 73-101, 101-60, 100-22.