In a major upset, former National Snooker champion Yasin Merchant on Sunday defeated reigning World billiards champion Pankaj Advani to win the Indian Cue Masters League 2005.

Merchant lost the first game of snooker (single frame) to young Advani 0-104, but came back strongly to win the 50-point game of billiards (50-46) and race to victory in the three pool game (3-1).

Advani, who did not lose a single match in the event till the finals, began strongly with a 53-point break to take away the snooker game from the 38-year-old Merchant.

The 20-year-old billiards champion led the second game of billiards 46-21 and seemed to be running away with the match and the title. But crucial errors in the final stages proved to be his undoing.

Merchant, on the back of an unfinished 29-point break, made an amazing recovery to win the billiards game 50-46 and tie the match 1-1.

In the deciding game of 9-ball pool, Advani continued to make errors. In the first rack, Advani failed to pocket the ninth ball thus conceding an early advantage to Merchant.

Though Advani tried to make a comeback with the score reading 2-1, another crucial error saw Merchant pocket the ninth ball of the fourth game winning the tie (3-1) and the match.

With the win, Merchant pocketed a prize money of Rs 70,000 while Advani had to be content with Rs 50,000.

In the semi-finals played earlier today, Merchant comprehensively defeated National snooker champion Alok Kumar 2-0 (Billiards 52-5, Snooker 58-23) to set up a title clash with Advani, who had a easy outing against Bengal's Mohammed Asim, who was defeated 2-0 (Snooker 63-37, Pool 3-2).

Both the losing semi-finalists got Rs 30,000 each.

In the play-off, Alok Kumar beat Mohammed Asim 2-0 (Snooker 88-40, Billiards 51-0).

The second leg of the league will be staged at Hyderabad from February 21-25.