The Hindu : Great escape for Railways

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2003

Sport

Sport - Basketball

Great escape for Railways

By M.C. Raman

Ram Kumar of Indian Railways about to score a basket against Jharkhand in the 53rd senior National basketball championship at Gachibowli (Hyderabad) on Monday. — Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

Hyderabad Jan. 27. It was another great escape for former champion Railways, coached by Arjuna awardee and one of the all-time greats Ajmer Singh, as the team rallied strongly in the final minutes to turn the tables on Jharkhand at 90-86 for its third straight win in men's Group B of the 53rd National senior basketball championship at the Swarnandhra indoor complex here on Monday.

This victory straightway put the Railways into the knock-out stage but the team had to fight hard in every encounter. And this one was pretty close. But for the enterprising bunch of young bench players Railways would have even lost this tie.

What started as a rough and tough encounter was going Jharkhand's way as the team struck a purple patch to take a 14-point lead in the third quarter. At 71-54 it looked as if Railways had lost the grip. But the Railways coacha did a mistake by persisting with the seven-footer Ishaluddin who was reduced to the level of a passenger by the highly spirited Des Raj, Mohit Bandari, Bhuvaneshwaran and Murali Krishna, who injured his leg and was carried away from court. But Ramkumar's steady shooting matched Des Raj's superb shooting for Jharkhand and it was a straight one-on-one basketing rivalry between the two.

Railways trailed 45-46 despite its better shooting in the second quarter, but Jharkhand surged ahead in the third quarter. And when things were going out of control, the Railway coach did a wise thing by sending in Trideep Rai, Prasad and Senthil. They, along with Ramkumar, set up a tremendous pace and hustled the rival. Within a short period Railways overtook Jharkhand and the match headed for an exciting finish.

Sparks virtually flew in the final minutes and the Railway team was given a technical foul for abusing the referee in the last two minutes. At that stage Railways was only ahead by two baskets. But Jharkhand, having played so well from the beginning, messed up its game in the final minutes by not setting the right tempo. Surprisingly, it slowed down the game. Ironically, Des Raj, who made Jharkhand to stand up and fight with his brilliant shooting, was also responsible for the team's defeat as he gave a bad pass in the dying seconds.

Later, Karnataka men led from the start to finish to spring a surprise on Services with a 86-75 victory in Group A.

In the morning, Delhi put up a pathetic performance in Group B match as it lost to Punjab 50-108. This was even after Punjab used its bench players. The encounter was an eyesore in the elite group. It was also Punjab's second win.

However, there was an exciting tie in the women's section as Tamil Nadu, despite its elimination from the race, went all out to spring a big surprise on Andhra. Tamil Nadu outplayed Andhra by showing excellent coordination in attack and defence. Today, Tamil Nadu, which committed about 63 fouls against Madhya Pradesh to lose the match on Sunday, set up good pace and used the fast break well to derail Andhra. Anitha, Adhirai, Sharmili, Vidya and Preethi applied full court press from the beginning and crippled Andhra's game completely. Only Sofi Sam of Andhra managed to covert, but Tamil Nadu outbasketed the rival in the second, third and fourth quarters, though it made a shaky start trailing 8-19 in the first quarter. After that Tamil Nadu changed the complexion of its game and went all out both in defence and attack.

In the men's qualifying league, Andhra in Group `C', Bengal in Group `D' and Uttaranchal in Group `E' are the front-runners and are almost assured of qualification. However, in Group `F', Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh are in the race. These four winners of the groups will play against each other and the winners of these matches are to face the fourth-placed teams in elite Groups `A' and `B' before they move into the quarterfinal knock-out. In the women's section, Delhi is certain to qualify from Group `C'. But things are still fluid in other groups. The winners of these four groups will play against each other and the winners will move into the quarterfinals.

This morning Kerala women played a rather casual game against Madhya Pradesh, which recorded its second win at 76-59 in Group B. It looked like a tactical game as Kerala did not want to run into Railways by finishing second in that group. But MP did not have any of those calculations and played its natural game to wrap up the match.

The results:

Men: Gr. `A': Uttar Pradesh 87 (Upendra 30, Amit Singh 20) beat Rajasthan 53 (Man Singh 13, Rajan Singh10, Gajendar Singh 10); Tamil Nadu 117 (Robinson 19, Moses 15, Sridhar 12) beat Rajasthan 85 (Rajan 26, Ranveer 14); Karnataka 86 (Umashankar 23, Ashrafali 16, Gautham 13, Murali 11) beat Services 75 (Peter John 17, Phool Singh 10, Tinu Joseph 12, Harendra 11). Gr. B: Punjab 108 (Gagnesh Kumar 22, Harjinder 16, Parminder Singh (sr) 15) beat Delhi 50 (Ravinder 19, Amit 13); Jharkhand 83 (Des Raj 28, Mohit 19) beat Delhi 57 (Yudvir 18, Ravinder 12); Railways 90 (Ramkumar 38, Trideep Rai 10) beat Jharkhand 86 (Mohit Bhandari 23, Des Raj 45). Gr. `C': Haryana 85 (Rana 26, Praveen 19) beat Gujarat 56 (Bhagirath 26). Gr. `D': HP 58 (Surinder 19) beat Goa 56 (Joe Costa 29). Andhra 68 (J. Pankaj 16, Ravikumar 11, Srinivas 10) beat Pondicherry 33 (Danassu 12); Bengal 64 (Sudeep Chatterjee 18, A.K. Mondal 12) beat Orissa 57 (Ashok 16, Amresh 16). Gr. `E': Uttaranchal 54 (Narendra 16) beat Manipur 27. Gr. `F': MP 85 (Kuldip 19, Saini 17) beat Assam 33. Uttaranchal 54 (Narendra Rawat 16) beat Manipur 27. MP 85 (Kuldip 19, Saini 17, Sukant 15) beat Assam 33; Maharashtra 71 (Nilesh 21) beat Assam 28.

Women: Group `A': Railways 106 (Ranjini Jose 17, Meena 15, Manisha 13, Arnika 13) beat Chhattisgarh 30 (Renu 10). Gr. `B': Tamil Nadu 81 (Anitha 30, Adhirai 23) beat Andhra 57 (Sofi Sam 25, Somini 10). MP 76 (Savitha 30, Nanda 15, Meenakshi 15) beat Kerala 59 (Ambili 18, Anjana 12, Lajitha 10). Gr. `C': HP 41 beat J & K 5. Gr. `D': Bengal 69 (Mary 18, Shanta 16) beat Karnataka 33. Gr. `E': Gujarat 44 (Dipali 20) beat Orissa 39 (Pragyana 10); Assam 47 (Salima Begum 21, Rita Bohra 12) beat Uttaranchal 28. Gr. `F': Chandigarh 39 (Sapna 18) beat Pondicherry 9.

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