Indian cueists go down tamely

Sandy Brown in Bangkok

India's exit was as disastrous as their start in the Blue Eagle Asian Cup snooker championship at the Grand Hotel in Bangkok on Wednesday.

In their inconsequential concluding group B league match, the Indians were made to eat humble pie by Singapore, 4-2, before Alok Kumar and, later, Asian snooker champion Yasin Merchant bailed them out from being routed.

India, who began their campaign on a bad note, going down 2-4 to China, were overwhelmed in their second league game by hosts Thailand, who were led by the evergreen James Wattana

''We were unlucky to lose three frames on the black and one on the pink,'' said Devendra Joshi, about their opening encounter against China.

In the match against Singapore, Merchant, who was woefully off-colour, saw the game slip away right from the start of the one-frame clash, in the best of seven encounters -- where the teams play six singles matches and one doubles.

Merchant's opponent, Marvin Lim pieced together small breaks while taking advantage of his opponent's lethargy to race to a comfortable 49-13 lead before wrapping up the game with an unfinished 11 for a 62-13 win.

Devendra Joshi began with a flourish to steal a 15-5 lead but then grew a little too cautious and played safe after missing a red against Keith Boon. The Singaporean took advantage of the Indian's error and gradually inched his way to bridge the gap and race to a narrow 17-15 lead.

Fortunes fluctuated thereafter until Joshi fouled when trailing 29-31 on a difficult shot and paid the price as Boon got into his stride to pot at will thereafter and piece together an unfinished break of 11 for a 49-35 victory, which gave his country a 2-0 lead.

Alok Kumar looked nervous as he crossed swords with Adrian Tang. He managed only a single point from four visits to the table and trailed 1-14. Fortunately for India, Kumar then struck a purple patch and came up with a brilliant break of 56 to jump to an unbeatable 57-14 lead. Then, it was only a matter of time before he wrapped up the match at 67-20 to reduce the lead to 2-1.

The doubles pair of Alok Kumar and Devendra Joshi started on a confident note, racing to a 18-10 lead. But that was as far as they could go, as successive errors by the duo saw their rivals take charge of the situation and come up with breaks of 33 and 16 to win comfortably at 71-18.

The fifth game between Yasin Merchant and Keith Boon was another thriller. Merchant came up with a break of 17 on his third visit to jump to a comfortable 38-0 lead but was woken up by Boon, who suddenly found his rhythm and began potting confidently. He received encouragement from the handful of spectators as he raced to a 31 break to tie the scores at 38-all.

The tie went down to the wire with the scores delicately placed. Yasin trailed 45-48 with only the pink and black remaining. He potted the pink to edge ahead 51-48 but missed the black, leaving it delicately placed at the top pocket. Boon thought he had the game and match wrapped up when he sliced the black with a gentle brush. Sadly for him, the ball, after kissing both corners of the pocket, teasingly stopped at the edge, leaving himself, Merchant and the audience gasping. Merchant did not have to attempt the shot to complete the formalities to level scores at 2-2.

However, then Adrian Tang came up with breaks of 22 and 21 as he beat Devendra Joshi 54-34 and sent India out as Singapore prevailed 4-2.