Tamil Nadu and Railways take titles

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, JAN. 1. Just when Tamil Nadu appeared to have the title safely tucked into its hip-pocket, Bihar made one last move and almost picked it up. Coming through stronger from these anxious moments, Tamil Nadu finally escaped to a rare 72-64 victory over Bihar and became the first men's National champion team of the new millennium on the New Year Day.

The 50th edition of the National basketball championship saw a thrilling finale in front of a large crowd at the NDMC Indoor Stadium when Tamil Nadu scored nine points in the last 71 seconds to prevail over a threatening Bihar, which had reduced the deficit to 62-65.

After Railways stopped gate-crasher Delhi 73-53 to complete the formality of winning the women's title for the 12th year in a row and 14th time in all, Tamil Nadu regained the men's title won as host in 1952, at Bangalore in 1992 and at Calcutta in 1996.

Starting with a blistering pace, the younger and fitter Tamil Nadu weaved past Bihar's zonal defence to score briskly in the first half. Once Bihar switched to man-to-man marking and succeeded in breaking Tamil Nadu's rhythm while bringing down a 17-point deficit to seven with 8:15 minutes to go in the first half, Tamil Nadu was worried for the first time.

At this stage, the display clock stopped ticking and though the snag was rectified in less than two minutes, the clock showed the remaining time as under five minutes. As a result, the actual playing time in the first half stood reduced by two minutes, but Tamil Nadu was not complaining.

``Since we were leading, there was no point in protesting,'' said Tamil Nadu's 29-year-old former player-turned coach A.D. Senthureshwaran later and continued, ``but who knows, the way we recovered at that stage, we might have increased our lead even more.'' The move to substitute Shabeer Ahmed with Shiv Shankar had paid off at that stage.

Ball-handler S. Gopinathan, rightly adjudged the `Player of the championship' among men, kept the rival guessing and hoodwinked his marker Mohit Bhandari on many occasions to assist shooters A.D. Sukavaneshwaran and Sridhar. The duo did most of the scoring in the first half while in the second the contributions came more evenly from the other members of the team.

Eventually, it was a combined effort that saw Tamil Nadu lead from start to finish. Sukavaneshwaran played superbly both in offence and defence, Robinson excelled in defence in the first half before coming up with some timely conversions in the second. Shabbir Ahmed, who returned with 6:35 on the clock after Sukvaneshwaran had to leave with five fouls, came good under pressure.

When Bihar was turning on the heat at 58-61, Shabbir scored off a rebound, converted three of the four free-throws in the space of 18 seconds to give Tamil Nadu a 68-62 lead in the final minute. After Nishant Kumar scored for Bihar, Sridhar and Gopinathan added to the victory margin.

Bihar, with stars Shahid Qureshi and Jaldeep Dhaliwal nursing injuries, played its natural, slow game and waited for openings to strike. Qureshi, who has to enact the dual role of playmaker and shooter, played his heart out. With his right-knee in braces, Qureshi showed that even on one leg, he could be more than a handful for the opposition. He fought intensely and, in the end, was fighting to hold back tears as the Tamil Nadu hoopsters celebrated.

Nishant Kumar missed a number of chances and that put Bihar under pressure. Jaldeep Dhaliwal, who played more in the defence, did a fair job before going out with five fouls. Younger players like Mohit Bhandari and Desraj must have proved to the Bihar team management that there is no harm in investing in youth.

Railways not tested at all

Earlier, the Railway women were never really tested. The starting line-up of Geo Jose, B.S. Shyla, Aparna Ghosh, Sheeba Menon and Ivy Cherian kept the less- experienced Delhi under pressure from the beginning and established a comfortable lead. Barring a four- minute-15-second period midway through the first session when Railways failed to add to its tally while Delhi scored eight points to close the gap to 16-19, the champion side looked at ease.

The fact that Railways has the best of women cagers on its rolls leaves the other team vying only for the runner-up spot. Knowing its awesome strength, Railways has been careful enough not to demoralise some of the better sides by winning with huge margins. After ensuring a comfortable lead, Railways often takes it easy and tries out its reserves. Today was no different. It is indeed a pity that in the absence of any meaningful opposition, the true potential of Railways never gets evaluated.

In the last quarter, Railways pulled out its `starting-five' and brought in Shany Jacob, Jiji Jose, Meena Latha (who also came in for a while in the first half for Ivy), Ranjini and Philomina Joseph. As a result, Delhi could score more freely in this period and scored 22 points to Railways' 16.

In terms of individual performances, the seasoned Aparna Ghosh was the pick among the Railways players. Whether as a ball- handler or as a shooter, Aparna's consistency was unmatched. More than the fact that Aparna top-scored, what helped Railways was that she never allowed Delhi gain any hope at any stage.

For Delhi, Mandeep Kaur, who walked away with the `Player of the championship' award, was the best. Though her percentage of scoring was not very high, she worked earnestly towards bringing down the margin of defeat. Shivani Gupta, Delhi's main pivot, was not expected to enjoy much liberty against Railways. She did most of her scoring towards the end by which time Railways had ensured yet another National title.

The results:

Men (final): Tamil Nadu 72 (Sridhar 21, S. Robinson 14, A.D. Sukaneshwaran 14, Shabbir Ahmed 9) bt Bihar 64 (Shahid Qureshi 24, Nishant Kumar 18, Desraj 13).

Third place: Punjab 61 (Parminder Singh Sr. 37, Vipin Kumar 19) bt Karnataka 57 (Gautham B.S. 17, S. Stalin 11, Murali Mohan 11).

Women (final): Railways 73 (Aparna Ghosh 15, Sheeba Magan 14, Shyla B.S. 11) bt Delhi 57 (Mandeep Kaur 17, Shivani Gupta 16, Prabhjot Gill 15).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Next     : Last chance for Indians to redeem their pride