Mumbai: World team championship silver medallist Dhruv Sitwala and Australian Open bronze winner Siddharth Parikh fired a flurry of century breaks for their respective teams in the inaugural Videocon Billiards Premier League here.
Sitwala, a twice world runner-up, was the toast of MB's Shooters' thrilling 3-2 win over SPG Billiards Punters who squandered a 2-0 advantage and lost. Sitwala initiated his team's brilliant recovery when he hit 138 and 103 against Sanket Bapat and later overcame world team gold medallist Ashok Shandilya with a fine, unfinished 156 in the decider after Amit Sapru snatched the crucial fourth tie for Shooters.
Sitwala's heroics helped Shooters, who were sharing joint lead with WJ Genii on 23 points, earn four points and grab the sole lead with a tally of 27 points.
Race for Gold enhanced their tally to 23 points to climb to joint second along with WJ Genii following a 3-2 win over RRockets, following a 3-1 win. Former Railways champion Siddharth Parikh sparkled in RRockets' loss while firing three century breaks of 129, 118 and 105.
Scorpions, who were languishing at the bottom of the 10-team league, registered their second win with an impressive 5-0 verdict over The Rakish Kings that helped them rise to joint fourth with Tigers on 17 points.
Scorpions' winning effort was marked by young Loukic Pathare's shock win over V Raja Subramanian in the opening singles tie. Playing with a handicap of -10, Pathare beat Raja (-120) 100-77 to give Scorpions a dream start.
Standings: 1. MB's Shooters (27); 2. WJ Genii and Race for Gold 23; 3. RRockets 18; 4. Tigers and Scorpions 17; 5. SP Young Guns 16; 6. SPG Billiards Punters and The Rakish Kings 15; 8. SK's Kannon Masters 11.
