Sport - Basketball   

IOB in ominous form

CHENNAI AUG. 6. The title race hotted up with favourite Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Dehradun, sweeping past their rivals with tremendous ease in the Ace IOB-Magnolia Trophy All-India men's basketball tournament at the Montfort indoor stadium, Santhome, here on Tuesday. The winners had quelled their rivals' challenge just midway through their matches; only ONGC was stretched a bit in the third quarter by Chennai Customs but won 81-55 in a Group B encounter.

Obviously, the focus is now on the front-runners. IOB showed its awesome scoring strength as U.P. Police, Lucknow, was shattered by the height advantage the Chennai team enjoyed and showed in rebound collection. Sometimes, even the Policemen's shots were blocked and the team quickly realised that it was a dead-end for it in the match.

Robinson, Shabeer Ahmed, Sundar and Chandrasekhar mopped up most of the rebounds for IOB. Even the tall Pawan Singh was boxed about and his presence hardly made any difference to U.P. Police. Under pressure, the U.P. Police outside shooter Ritesh Kumar started fumbling right from the beginning. It was only the quick Abinav Singh who managed to cut through the rival defence to score, particularly in the later part of the game after Robinson was pulled out.

As long as its main players were on court, IOB dictated terms and took a commanding 41-19 lead at half-time. It was a casual start by the Bank team in the first five minutes, but its game picked up quickly and the scoring machine began to work. However, when Sivashankar, Sridhar, Venkatasubramaniam and Hariharasudan entered the court as substitutes, U.P. Police tried to hustle them with some quick passing. But IOB had a huge lead to hang on to.

Perhaps, the most satisfying news for the team was the return of its ball handler Gopinath after a leg surgery. Gopinath proved that he was slowly getting back his fitness. Though he seemed to have lost some pace, the brilliance in driving and passing was there for all to see.

Customs got off to an excellent start against ONGC, enjoying a 26-18 lead in the first 10 minutes. It utilised its pivot Madhusudan well and put pressure on the visitor. But the Dehradun team's scoring picked up in the second quarter as Suresh Kumar, Pradeep Randhawa and Nishant Kumar, who has put on weight after leaving TISCO, came up with steady shots.

However, the Customs defence crumbled in the fourth quarter in which ONGC scored 25 points against its five.

Indian Bank proved that it was down but not out yet; despite its ageing stars, it is still a team to reckon with. Mercantile Services Basketball Association, Colombo, tried to outpace the Bank side but did not have the shooting to match its speed. In rebound collection, Indian Bank had the upperhand thanks to Jayasankar, Saravanan and Jeson Peter.

MSBA's main scorer was the tall Roshan Gunasekara who unleashed his hook shots perfectly. Despite being hustled under the basket, he managed to hit the hoop even from difficult angles. But the Sri Lankan team did not have a good outside shooting, forcing the team to lose grip in the first quarter itself.

Indian Bank was ahead 19-10 in the first quarter, 38-25 at half-time and 50-38 in the third quarter. The Sri Lankans, however, gave up in the last quarter.

Western Railway recorded its second win in Group D, outplaying Hindustan BC, Chennai, 99-69.

IOB and MEG, Bangalore, in Group A, ONGC and Central Excise, Kochi, in Group B, TISCO and DLW, Varanasi, in Group C, Indian Bank and Western Railway in Group D are the front-runners.

The results:

ONGC, Dehradun, 81 (Suresh Kumar 20, Pardeep Randhawa 30, Nishant Kumar 15) bt Customs, Chennai, 55 (Madhusudan 26).

IOB 83 (Hariharasudan 10, Sivashankar 12, Gopinath 10, Robinson 11) bt UP Police, Lucknow, 46 (Abinav Singh 25, Ritesh Singh 10).

Indian Bank 73 (Moses Jeevanand 10, Mohan Raj 16, Jenson Peter 10, Sukavaneshwar 14) bt MSBA, Colombo, 46 (Roshan Gunasekara 14, Thushak Karunaratne 14, Pradeep Pushpakumara 12).

Western Railway 99 (Ranjith Singh 42, Mahendra Singh 13, Ramkumar 14) bt Hindustan BC, Chennai, 69 (Sivarajan 15, Gokulakrishnan 14, Sikandar 23).

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Athletics

• Manjunath, Sharmila take day's honours
  
  Basketball
  
• IOB in ominous form
  
  Chess
  
• Harikrishna remains in joint lead
  
  Cricket
  
• To err is human, says Wright
• Straight-talking leader wins admirers
• Canada beats West Indies `A'
  
  Football
  
• AFC team to visit India
• India enters semifinals
  
  Sports : General
  
• Welcome home, you did us proud
• India's medal winners
• Accolades pour in
• Sport Digest
  
  Table Tennis
  
• PSCB, Railways to fight it out
  
  

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu