Punjab Police survives an Army ambush

By M.C. Raman

VISAKHAPATNAM, JULY 26. Indian Army was caught napping in the first ten minutes before it woke up to apply full court press in an intimidating manner. But Punjab Police was too smart to be hustled by the pressure tactics as it scored its first comfortable 77-56 victory over the Army squad in a men's Group A match in the 17th Federation Cup basketball tournament at the Port indoor stadium here on Wednesday.

As the three women's encounters hardly gave anything for the spectators to enjoy, this match drew considerable crowd and the spectators witnessed some exciting stuff late in the evening.

It is a pity the Basketball Federation of India is not doing anything for the improvement of the women's game and it is no wonder that the women players have been constantly complaining about the attitude of the Federation.

There is hardly any coaching camps and clinics for them and this is one Federation which has not encouraged former women players to become coaches and officials. There is not even any effort in that direction.

Technically, the women teams are not well equipped. Even Railways assembles best players from States like Kerala, Bengal, Punjab and Tamil Nadu and puts them through a brief coaching camp. Barring a few teams like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Bengal, there is a glaring lacunae in the standards.

Even Maharashtra, which did somewhat better on the opening day, lost its Group A encounter miserably at 10-60 against Railways on Tuesday. Maharashtra could muster only six points in the first half.

In the Group B Andhra-Delhi encounter, baskets were hard to come by. Andhra, which was pushed to the brink in the low scoring match after the break, managed to record a 36-24 victory over Delhi. At half time Andhra led 25-11.

The third Group A match between Kerala and Punjab ended in a massive 73-33 victory for the former. Punjab had neither defence nor offence to challenge the agile Kerala girls. Poonam was better in outside shooting and that helped Punjab to some extent. Overall the tie was a poor exhibition of women's game in the country.

Railways and Kerala from Group A and Andhra from Group B have moved into the women's semifinals with two wins each in their respective groups.

Once again the focus was on the defending champion Punjab Police, which is here in full strength. Tackling the Police squad is not easy and with two towering pivots almost touching the ring, the champion side can be a killer squad for a rival lacking proper plans.

It was a tactical blunder on the part of the Army team to allow the rival to get into its rhythm. Parminder (Sr.), Parminder (Jr.) and Gaganesh Kumar virtually over-ran the Army side to take a 24-6 lead in the first ten minutes.

It looked like a veritable slaughter and the way the defending champion maimed the rival under its basket, hitting the hoop from every angle, one was skeptical about the recovery of Indian Army.

Out of sheer desperation, the Armymen went for a full court press, intercepting the passes and forcing the Punjab players into passing errors.

It was this hustling and pressure that helped the Army team to reduce the score to 28-39 at half time. Punjab Police was also shaken by the sudden full court press of the rivals and its shooting percentage came down.

This trend continued even after the break and Army cut down the lead to 40-46. The Army coach began to try substitutes and ball handler Sharat Nagane, Gagan Deep, Sweeto Francis, Thangachan and G.R.L. Prasad were mainly responsible for shoring up the Army morale. As Sharat and Gagan passed the ball well to the tall Phool Singh to shoot, it was turning into an interesting encounter.

However, the team committed team fouls quickly in stopping Parminder (Sr.) and Tajenderjeet Singh. That affected its game and Thambi failed to convert three free throws. The Policemen once again consolidated its position by taking a 69-52 lead eight minutes before the final whistle. It was too big a gap for the Armymen to close.

The results:

Men: Punjab Police 77 (Parminder Singh (Sr.) 42, Parminder Singh (Jr.) 20 bt Indian Army 56 (Phool Singh 15, Thambi 14)

Women: Kerala 73 (Ambili Thomas 23, Lajitha 10) bt Punjab 33 (Poonam 15); Andhra 36 (Saif Sam 25, Sissily 11) bt Delhi 24 (Nishitha Choudhry 19); Railways 60 (Meenalatha 10, Ranjini Jose 12) bt Maharashtra 10

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Section  : Sport
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