Champs Bata, Django crash out of pool World Cup

Showtime ended early for "The Magician" Efren "Bata" Reyes and his partner Francisco "Django" Bustamante. The curtains fell on the defending champions after the pair of crack Indonesian players Ricky Yang and Mohammad Zulfikri left the Filipinos and their well-wishers of about 2,000 stunned in their race-to-8 match Thursday at the Midtown Wing of Robinson's Place in Ermita, Manila. The Indonesians toppled their much-heralded Filipino counterparts, 8-6. The hometown cheering crowd got very much involved for most part of the game, hoping their old heroes will produce yet another miracle just like what this famed Pinoy combo did last year against their German rivals. But Yang and Zulfikri showed nerves of steel while their more experienced rivals cracked under pressure. The Indonesians leveled the count at the sixth rack, then took the next two racks after Bustamante committed yet another costly error. Playing with pride, the Filipinos rallied back to tie the score at 5-all behind a series of safety shots that set up Bustamante for a clean up in the 10th. But in the 11th, it's Indonesia's turn to get the better of safety exchanges and they grabbed the upper hand anew, 6-5. The Indonesians pounced on yet another missed shot by Bustamante on ball No. 2 and seized the momentum to move on the brink of finishing the match. Although the Filipinos did fight back after Yang had a dry break, Reyes had another blunder in the 14th rack and the Indonesians didn't waste time ending the match from there. "We played good at the beginning, but we missed a couple of positions and we could do nothing," said a disappointed Bustamante. "They played good, but we gave them two or three games. If we had played well it would've been easy to win 8-3 or 8-4, but we both missed and the plans changed," added the reigning World 9-Ball champion. Bustamante said pressure has slowly built up, especially with their countrymen expecting nothing more than another championship. "For me and Efren, we are playing in our country and we have a lot of support, but there's a lot of pressure. It's difficult enough and there's a lot of pressure, especially in a short match such as the race-to-8. We're getting older and we prefer longer matches because it will give us time to recover," Bustamante said. Indonesia will advance into the next round where it will join early qualifier Chinese-Taipei. Chinese-Taipei's pair of two-time world junior champion Ko Pin-Yi and veteran Guinness 9-Ball campaigner Chang Jung Lin whipped their Japanese counterparts, 8-2. "We enjoyed it today, and felt very comfortable at the table" said Chang, after the match. "We will just take each match as it comes and try our very best. Ko is a great young player and we are looking forward to the next match on Saturday," he added. A total of $250,000 is up for grabs with the champion getting $60,000. - JVP, Rey Joble, GMANews.TV