Date:30/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/30/stories/2006123009971900.htm

Sport - Basketball

Mixed luck for Railways men

Kirti Patil

JAIPUR: Defending champion Railways and the last year's runner-up Punjab suffered setbacks in the National basketball championship at the Sawai Mansingh indoor stadium here.

Railways suffered a reverse against Kerala in a close men's Group A super league match before it recovered in time to beat Delhi 85-55 on Friday.

Only 11 points separated Railways and Kerala, in a match that went to the wire before the latter clinched the issue late on Thursday night. Subhash Shenoy top-scored with 23 points for Kerala and had left Railways gasping.

The host Rajasthan recorded a thrilling 71-69 win over Punjab in the Group B super league match.

Big win

Railways women whipped Kerala 134-49 in the Group A super league match. Seema Singh and Anju scored 23 points apiece as Railways raced to the biggest win so far at the Nationals here. Seasoned Geetu Anna Jose chipped in with 10 points to hand Railways its second-straight win.

The results:

Super league: Men: Group A: Railways 85 (Riyazuddin 40, Jasjod Singh 16, Shiv Kumar 13) bt Delhi 55 (Sarvan Kumar 11, Lakshay M. 10); Kerala 74 bt Uttaranchal 63; Kerala 84 (Subhash Shenoy 23) bt Railways 73 (Shiv Kumar 30, Riyazuddin 17).

Group B: Rajasthan 71 (Lokesh Yadav 13, Mod Singh 10, Sandeep 14) bt Punjab 69 (Samardeep Singh 15, Yogender Singh 18); Tamil Nadu 80 (Trideep Rai 21, Sukaneshwar 10, Ravi Kumar 10) bt Madhya Pradesh 52 (Sukant Garg 13).

Qualifying league: Group C: Haryana 88 (Amit Prashant 22, Praveen 17) bt Gujarat 40 (Nayik 11).

Group D: Bengal 63 (Wasim Ahmed 14, Suhas 11, Amlendu 13) bt Chhattisgarh 38 (Surender 11, A. Santosh 11); Himachal Pradesh 73 (Vinay 23, Dileep 22) bt Jharkhand 56 (Arif Aftab 13, Mohammed Sayeed 13).

Group E: Uttar Pradesh 88 (Abhishek19, Abhilak Paul 15) bt Maharashtra 67 (Lakhwinder Singh 14, Sikander Jeet 10); Chandigarh 55 (A. Khan 11, Avneesh 10) bt Jammu and Kashmir 34 (Hardeep Singh 12).

Group F: Assam76 (V. Singh 22, Binod 17) bt Pondicherry 48 (Baskaran 20, Ganesh 10); Orissa 83 (Ashok Nayak 26, Ashish 14) bt Tripura 67 (Dinesh 21); Assam 52 (Vinor 14, Hanuman Singh 10) bt Orissa 38 (Vikas 12).

Super league: Women: Group A: Railways 134 (Anju 23, Seema 23, Geetu Anna Jose 10) bt Kerala 49 (Ranjusha 14); Maharashtra 60 (Beena M. 26, Ambili P. K. 12) bt Tamil Nadu 22 .

Group B: Delhi 80 (Divya Singh 26, Prashanti Singh 13) bt Punjab 55; Chhattisgarh 73 (M. Pushpa 18, Navneet 13) bt Madhya Pradesh 59 (Supreet Kaur 14).

Qualifying league: Group C: Himachal Pradesh 54 (Geeta 16, Chanki 19) bt Orissa 27.

Group E: Bengal 45 (Mridula Adil 14) bt Chandigarh 24 (Pushpa 13); Karnataka 56 (Sunitha 11, Rani A. N. 10) bt Tripura 25.

Group F: Haryana 47 (Chetana 10, Manu 12) bt Uttaranchal 22 (Ritika 10); Uttar Pradesh 64 (Mridula 20, Anamika 15) bt Assam 43 (Shalima 12); Haryana 28 (Rupender 11) bt Assam 27.