Date:08/07/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/07/08/stories/2005070810782000.htm

Sport - Basketball

India, Kazakhstan qualify

Rakesh Rao

STEALING A MARCH: Anton Ponomarev tries to get past Hurmatjon Nuraliyev. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

NEW DELHI: Kazakhstan cleared a major hurdle in its bid to top the Middle Asia zone qualifying basketball league when it overpowered Uzbekistan 95-58 at the NDMC Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.

Like Kazakhstan, India, too, recorded its second straight victory by proving superior to Bangladesh with a 131-52 score-line. With these wins, both countries have ensured qualification for the Asian championship in September.

While India's victory was a foregone conclusion, Kazakhstan had to stave off a brief second-quarter rally by its Central Asia neighbour.

The Kazakhs opened an early lead but the Uzbeks made it 31-all with two minutes and 29 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Thereafter, sensing danger, Kazakhs stepped up the offensive and broke away to dominate the proceedings and never allowed the Uzbeks another chance to get dangerously close.

In this racy encounter, Kazakh Vyacheslav Rosnovsky gave a fine exhibition of his shooting skills and contributed 20 points, including two three-pointers.

His steady scoring was well complimented by Anton Ponomarev, who repeatedly foxed the rival defence to score from close. Once the Kazakhs had re-established comfortable lead in the third quarter, scoring 33 points to their rival's 12, Ivan Nechaev and Andrey Shpeht tried their hand at shooting from the `outside' and both succeeded twice.

The Uzbeks knew their fate midway through the third quarter when the Kazakhs repeatedly foiled them. The man-to-man marking of the Kazakhs left the Uzbeks exasperated and the result was not difficult to guess.

Hurmatjon Nurlaiyev, who came in late in the first quarter, went on to score 11 points. Ildar Safarov, Vyacheslav Dinisov and Anton Martinenko had moderate success in their attempts to score from `outside'.

Bench strength

Later, India started by testing its bench strength against Bangladesh before giving every member a chance to play. With the match against Uzbekistan coming up next, India's ploy was understandable.

Riyazuddin, who accounted for 16 of the 28 points scored by India in the first quarter, went on to top the scoring with 30 before staying away from the last quarter. The lack of resistance from Bangladesh also saw Mihir Pandey, Trideep Rai, Shabeer Ahmed and Talwinderjit Singh display their shooting skills with a fair amount of success. H. Laldinsanga, the flamboyant playmaker came in towards the closing stages of the third quarter and played to the galleries while setting up several scoring opportunities to his teammates.

For Bangladesh, Mohammad Raseduzzaman made his presence felt after the first quarter and contributed 31 points. His shooting was indeed the brightest spot of his team's performance. Playmaker Imran Khan, too, gave a good account of himself. He not only assisted Raseduzzaman well but also scored nine points.

The scores:

India 131 (Riyazuddin 30, Snehpal 19, Mihir Pandey 13, Trideep Rai 13, Talwinder Singh 12, Shabeer Ahmed 12) beat Bangladesh 52 (Mohammad Raseduzzaman 31).

Kazakhstan 95 (Vyacheslav Rosnovsky 20, Anton Ponomarev 13, Andrey Yargaliev 10, Andrey Shpeht 10) beat Uzbekistan 58 (Hurmatjon Nuraliyev 11, Mikhail Shafenkov 9, Sergey Kuchin 9).