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Delhi shows Gujarat the door
| Arif Mohammad’ s short burst settles the issue |
ALL FOCUS: Sunil Kumar (15) of Delhi trying to force his way past the Gujarat defence to score.
SURAT: A debutant changed the course of the match in a matter of 10 minutes, or perhaps even less. Playing for Delhi at 27 years is no big achievement. What Arif Mohammad Lodi did was a minor feat, but significant in more ways than one for his home team. He scored 10 points after entering the court only in the fourth quarter.
At a time when Gujarat was inching closer, Arif’s three three-pointers, each finely executed, ensured Delhi defeat the host 78-71 and push it out of the Karp-Jyoti 59th senior National basketball championships here on Saturday. Delhi thus qualified for the pre-quarterfinals after a gap of two years.
Smooth sailingBoosted by Internationals Rickin Pethani and Dishant Shah, Gujarat sailed along smoothly. Rickin was the pick of the two, initially. There was nothing that could stop him. Scoring regularly off rebounds, Rickin, in double quick time picked up 13 points as Gujarat remained in the driver’s seat.
Delhi, on the other hand, had no big names. Its most experienced hoopster was Pramod Kumar, who has played four Nationals and Sunil Kumar with two. The rest were all either debutants or players with little standing at this level. But Delhi had people who could do the job. Sunil Kumar impressed with his shooting and kept scoring at a regular pace; he was the top-scorer for Delhi. Aditya Biswas also impressed. And of course, Delhi had Arif, who provided the Midas touch.
In a twist to the tale, Karnataka defeated Chhattisgarh 73-65 to make it to the women’s quarterfinals, thereby knocking Kerala out of the championships. After causing the big upset, all that Karnataka wanted was a big defeat to Kerala at the hands of title contender Delhi. And once that happened, its position (on the basis of points average) became clear. Maharashtra and U.P. women qualified for the last eight from the lower pool (Level II).
TN keeps winningTamil Nadu posted its third straight win in Pool ‘B’ defeating Uttar Pradesh 81-59. In its last league match, TN meets Rajasthan on Sunday. It was an authoritative display by TN.
The heartening feature for TN was that the bench strength was full. Replacements for forward John De Platto and ball-handler Suresh Kumar, who couldn’t make it to the Nationals due to prior commitments, finally played their first match. Coach Baskar was happy that the bench strength was fully used but felt that defence could have been sharper.
Uttarakhand, too, maintained its unbeaten run in Pool ‘A’. In its third and penultimate match, Uttarakhand crushed Kerala 86-61.
Sunday will be a day in which the losers (those who haven’t qualified for the knock-out) will play against each other. The men’s and women’s quarterfinals begin on January 5 (Monday).
The results:
Men: Level I: ‘B’: TN 81 (Vineeth Revi Mathew 14, C.V. Dinesh 14, S. Robinson 12) bt U.P. 59 (Arjun Singh 24, Rajneesh Singh 18, Santhosh Kumar 13); ‘A’: Uttarakhand 86 (Trideep Rai 26, Riazuddin 21, M. Anup 17) bt Kerala 61 (R. Manoj 21, V. Vivek 10, Bobit Mathew 10).
Level II: Delhi 78 (Sunil Kumar 22, Pramod Kumar 12, Aditya Biswas 15, Navdeep Yadav 10, Arif Mohammad ) bt Gujarat 71 (Rikin Pethani 24, Dishant Shah 17, Swapnil Thakur 17); Chhattisgarh 69 (Kiranpal Singh 26, Pratham Singh 22) bt Assam 48 (Kapil Punia 17, Satpal Singh 16).
Women: ‘B’: Karnataka 73 (Kruthika 18, Smitha 16, Nimisha 13, Deepa 10) bt Chhattisgarh 65 (Aakanksha Singh 23, Aruna Kindo 17); Delhi 105 (Shiba Maggon 24, Harjeet Kaur 20, Prashanti 14, Akanshia 14) bt Kerala 54 (Somiya Joseph 28, Litty Mathew 14).
Level II: UP 72 (Renu Maurya 30, Anamika 19) bt MP 66 (Meenakshi 16, Taranjit Kaur 15, Nanda 14); Maharashtra 66 (Aarti 15, Silja Joseph 13, Siji Kurian 13) bt West Bengal 52 (Rima 13, Rinki 11).
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