Mehta scrambles to victory

Aditya Mehta, one of the hot title contenders, was taken to five frames by unheralded Manish Jain of Bengal in the preliminary league of the 78th National Snooker Championship here on Saturday.

Chennai: Showing little signs of a jet lag after having arrived here from England barely hours before his match, Aditya Mehta, one of the hot title contenders, was however taken to five frames by unheralded Manish Jain of Bengal in the preliminary league of the 78th National Snooker Championship here on Saturday.The 23-year old Jain, who is training at the World Snooker Academy, missed a sitter blue in the fourth frame to let Mehta off the hook as the Maharashtra star won 81-06, 41-74, 89-0, 62-58.Meanwhile, Amit Bhushan, the qualifier from Karnataka, chalked up a surprise win against the experienced Rupesh Shah (PSPB) 65-51, 59-67, 60-41, 82-70, 61-40 in a touch-and-go match that could have gone either way.

Bureau Report