M. Mullick Fails in Battle of Nerves : National Billiards

Chandra Hirjee made a grand recovery in the second session to beat M. Mullick by 1583 points to 1496 in the semi-final of the National Billiards Championship on Friday at the great Eastern Hotel . Hirjee will now meet Wilson Jones in the Final .
M. Mullick , the qualifying round winner , who was leading by 133 points at the end of the first session failed in the battle of nerves . Hirjee , who did not reach the century even once in the first session was a different player after the interval , especially after his fourth visit . In the second session he made three century breaks . Those , who had left after seeing the first part of the play , could not believe that Hirjee had won the match . In the second session Hirjee took medicine being unwell and improved his play . With masterly touch he gained fluent scoring against his unexperienced opponent .
The younger of the two , Mullick lived upto the reputation he had earned earlier in the championships and reproduced the form that enabled him to get better of T. A. Salvaraj , a former winner of the championship from Mysore , in the quarter final .
The more experienced Hirjee in the first session played much better his usual form , missing unexpectedly easy shots on occasions . In his 40 visits to the table during this period he scored ‘duck’ , to quote a cricket parlance , on no fewer than 15 occasions . In his twenty-ninth visit to the table Hirjee missed an easy shot like a novice .

FIRST SESSION

Although Hirjee was on the lead upto his ninth visit . Mullick did not lag behind for long and when he made a break of 46 in the tenth visit trends of the game started taking different course . Mullick forged into a big lead and at one stage the score stood at 505 to 240 in his favour .
A little later a break of 101—the first century break in the first session—in seven minutes put Mullick further ahead of his opponent . Mullick continued in the same vein and at the end of the first session he led Hirjee by 833 points to 697 . Mullick averaged 20 points per visit during the fist session while Hirjee’s figures were 17 . Each player visited the table for 40 times during the first session .
Over-fifty breaks by either player during the first session were as follows :
Mullick : 58 , 101 and 82 .
Hirjee : 71 , 59 , 69 , 76 and 89 .
SECOND SESSION

Straining every nerve Hirjee started his play after the interval and made a century break of 127 in 6 ½ minutes in his second visit . At that time he was still in arrears of 17 points .

TURNING POINT

With a break of 50 in his fourth visit he turned the scale in his favour . Hereafter he went on increasing his lead and scored two more century breaks of 142 and 134 in 9 minutes and 8 minutes in his 6th and 10th visit respectively . At the end of the play the score stood thus : Hirjee 1583 and Mullick 1496 . In the second session Hirjee averaged 20 points per visit while Mullick’s was 14 . Each player visited the table 44 times during the second session .
Breaks of over 50 by either player during the second session were :
Hirjee : 127 , 50 , 142 , 134 , 82 , 50 and 52 .
Mullick : 72 , 59 , 54 and 56 .