Gritty Hyderabad District puts it past IOB

By M.C. Raman

VISAKHAPATNAM, JULY 25. Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai, caught in a web of poor start, inadequate defence and clumsy finish, went down to a gritty Hyderabad District 68-70 in men's Group A of the 17th Federation Cup basketball tournament at the Port indoor stadium here on Tuesday. Almost all the three women's matches in the morning had been one-sided and the men's encounter, which was eagerly awaited, turned out to be one exciting tussle from start to finish.

It is the fighting spirit of the locals, more than their skills, that deserves to be appreciated. Pitted against one of the best outfits in the country, trained recently by at least two American coaches at Chennai, Hyderabad District planned its game well, lost the grip in the third quarter before rallying brilliantly to notch up its first win.

Once again the organisers faced the old problem of teams playing truant. Tisco had withdrawn, citing some flimsy reasons and the officials had to reschedule the programme because of the non- arrival of Madhya Pradesh women's outfit. As some of these States depend heavily on school and college players, they find it difficult to field teams at this juncture because of admissions. This has become a perennial problem and the Federation is not taking any steps to have stand-bye outfits. This is due to lack of proper planning.

An overconfident IOB was caught on the wrong foot by the Hyderabad players who set up good pace and brilliant low post game. The man who did the damage was not the experienced Vishal Kumar, the towering pivot, but M.V. Rajesh, who barged from both the flanks despite Shabeer Ahamed's close marking. That set the tempo and the home team ran up a 16-point (40-24) lead in the second quarter.

It was not just Rajesh who did the damage. Ball- handler Srinath was unstoppable right through and that kept the District side on its toes always. Even Ravikumar played so well, stealing the passes and tipping in the rebounds at crucial stages. At half time IOB was trailing 31-42. The gap was reduced by Shabeer's three baskets in a row.

When things looked pretty bad for IOB, its ball- handler Gopinath single-handedly brought his team back into the reckoning by driving in for lay-ups and close shots. It was his fantastic speed and thrust that exposed Hyderabad District's defence, which virtually went on a tail-spin.

It was mainly due to Gopinath that IOB even went ahead to 64-62. This was a God-sent chance for the Chennai side but it failed to seize it. When there was still five minutes to go, all that IOB had to do was to tighten up the defence. But it again allowed Rajesh to move in for the `kill' and that was a disaster. With seven team fouls, IOB committed a foul in the dying seconds. That virtually sealed its fate. As IOB is in a four-team group, it has still a chances to take a semifinal berth.

Later, Vijaya Bank, Bangalore, made a comfortable start with a 13-8 lead, fought hard for a brief period in the second quarter before quelling the challenge of Jaipur District 82-62 in a men's Group B encounter.

It was Muali Mohan's steady shooting in the second session, coupled with Jaipur District's poor defence that helped Vijaya Bank win the match with such a big margin.

In the morning, Andhra, backed by Railway players, hardly gave any room for Tamil Nadu to fight its way up. Laiji, Sisily, Sreeja Kumar, Sofi Saf and Alamelu gave the home team a head- start and by half time it was clear that Tamil Nadu was fading away (22-36). Missing easy shots, the visitors were in a mess. Andhra won the Group B women's match 68-49.

Railways, the defending champion and hot favourite, crushed a young Punjab team, trained by Dr. S. Subramanian, perhaps the most experienced and oldest coaches in the country, at 80-23 in Group A.

``This Punjab team will be ready in another two or three years. As the State has sought my service I am doing it, '' said Mr. Subramanian.

However, the Kerala-Maharashtra tie in Group A was perhaps the best of the lot. Though Kerala took a 34-20 lead at half time, Manisha Kaprekar and Mithila Gujar shook the rivals with some brilliant outside shooting. Though Maharashtra managed to reduce the lead to 41-45, Kerala wriggled out of the tight situation with some neat shots by Sandhya and Ambili.

The results:

Men: Hyderabad District 70 (Rajesh 28, Vishal Kumar 14, Srinath 14) bt IOB 68 (Shabeer Ahmed 14, Shivashankar 14, Gopinath 19, Sridhar 11); Vijaya Bank 82 (Muali Mohan 30, Basavaraj 17, Venkatnaryan 13) bt Jaipur District 62 (M.J. Haroon 24, Ashok Kumar 14).

Women: Andhra 68 (Sisily 18, Sofi Saf 16, Alamelu 14) bt Tamil Nadu 49 (Shyamala 22, Vinaya 10); Railways 80 (Philomina 11, Meenalatha 17, Arnika Gujar 13) bt Punjab 23 (Reena 12); Kerala 66 (Ambili 11, Ligi George 10, Sandhya 14) bt Maharashtra 43 (Manisha Kaprekar 17.

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