Keerthana, Natasha prevail in battle of the sexes; Talwar shocks India No. 3 Harish  

Reigning National champion Keerthana Pandian and U-19 champion Natasha Chethan prevailed in the battle of the sexes in the third round of the Joy Heyball International Open in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

Coming off a bronze-medal effort at the IBSF World Snooker Championships last month, Keerthana registered a comfortable 4-3 win over Piyush Kushwaha. The 23-year-old from Kolar was just a win away from booking her berth in the knockouts of the double-elimination tournament.

The promising Natasha, the reigning IBSF World U-21 snooker champion, outclassed Prateek Jain 5-2 in her third-round clash. The tall Bengaluru cueist, who has had more exposure in heyball than most players in the country, too was just a win away from the knockouts of the $50,000 event.

Earlier, Sumit Talwar, who stunned Kamal Chawla in the second round, took out India No. 3 Harish Kumar 5-3 in the third round.

Chawla, the National runner-up, meanwhile stayed in the hunt by defeating Anuj Uppal in a shootout (3-2) after being level 3-3 at the end of the 60-minute regulation time in the losers’ bracket match.

Select results (Round 3, Indians unless mentioned): David Anderson (RSA) bt Musauvir Shahroz 5-1; Sundeep Gulati bt Ankur Nanda 5-2; Natasha Chethan bt Prateek Jain 5-2; Chetan Chabra bt Parvesh Jaidka 4-2; Sumit Talwar bt Harish Kumar 5-3; Ketan Sabhachandani bt Divya Sharma 5-4; Rajat Khaneja bt Pushpender Singh 5-4; Keerthana Pandian bt Piyush Kushwaha 4-3; Younis Nazir Kuchey bt Sachin 4-4 (Black ball shootout); Faisal Khan bt Karthik BC 5-4.

Losers’ bracket: Anupama Ramachandran bt Kamalpreet Singh 4-4 (Black ball shootout); Alok Kumar bt Kunal Manchanda 3-3 (Black ball shootout); Viren Sharma bt Angadpreet Singh 5-1; Kamal Chawla bt Anuj Uppal 3-3 (Black ball shootout).