Praput led marginally at the interval against Les Higgins of Tasmania, whose lack of exposure to tournament competition was the reason for his defeat.

Higgins attempted everything and left the Thai good openings instead of trying to play safe when the situation warranted. Praput led 658-539 at the halfway, but Higgins reduced the margin to 36 points. His attempt at the three cushion cannon left Praput a very easy position at the top of the table and that was the end of the fight. Praput ran up consistent breaks of 77, 63 and 81 to win 1294-1057. Higgins had breaks of 115 and 125 whilePraput had only one solitary run of 179 in his victory.

Bhaskar was slow to settle down in his matches, although he won quite easily. He appears to have overcome all the tensions that normally play a very big part in the process of achieving fame and glory. It was very cool at the start and everything worked well for him as he got off to a flying start. He went hammer and tongs recording six centuries and a double in his victory against P Stocker of New Zealand. Bhaskar won 1639-837.

He had breaks of 100, 108, 159, 185, 118, 111 and 200. His last match of the group will be against Australian Joe Mancini, which will decide, who finishes first in group. However, he is assured of a place in the last 16.

Subash Agarwal was in superb form against local Bangalore lad ``Dinky'' Suares, who is now donning Aussie colours in this tournament. Subash had a 337 and four other big runs over a hundred in the first session. He leads by over a thousand points. The latter session will start at 8 p.m. (localtime).

Nalin Patel and Manoj Kothari have played according to expectations and have been happy about their form in their two successive wins. However the chinks in their armour have started showing in today's first session. Patel trails by just over 100 points against Neil Croft and Kothari leads by just 10 points against junior champion Mathew Bolton. Nalin was struggling with himself to play the slightly more difficult ones and only towards the close of play, he held himself together and made 104 to narrow the gap. Croft has played very well.

On resumption, whoever makes a decent break will have the upper hand in the match.