The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Sri Lankan women topple Tamil Nadu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 24, 2006

Sport

Sport - Basketball

Sri Lankan women topple Tamil Nadu

Principal Correspondent

KOTTAYAM: They have been coming here for the last five years, mainly for a learning experience. But on Thursday, the Sri Lankan women offered a lesson or two with their vibrant basketball while toppling defending champion Tamil Nadu 81-71 in the 46th South Zone senior basketball championship at the Nehru Stadium here.

After the sleepy opening encounter, where Karnataka men thrashed Pondicherry 101-54, the championship came stunningly alive this evening when Sri Lanka stepped on court.

Lively combination

The girls in red played a fast and fiery game. They did not have a centre but they were a lively combination, mostly thriving from outside. Ball-handler Premila Fernando played with such pace and offered such stunning passes that the champion girls did not know how to break her rhythm. And a few times, Premila drove in aggressively and scored some under-baskets too.

And to match Premila's superb feeds, Dhanushka Wijesinghe, Inoka Sandamali and captain Kumarine Silva came up with smart baskets, hooks, longrangers and all. Tamil Nadu, without its regular Railway backup, was not its usual self. But there were a couple of very promising faces. Like the talented Kokila who offered a nice treat with her smart dribbling and shooting.

She worked the ball around her legs, to shake off her guard, and on a couple of occasions, between her legs too. She was clearly Tamil Nadu's star of the evening. Sri Lanka had finished third twice in the South Zone earlier but Thursday's performance could carry the team to its best-ever finish in the final table.

The results: Men: Group B: Karnataka 101 (Uma Shankar 18, M. Basavaraj 17, M.R. Vasu 12) bt Pondicherry 54 (S. Kumaran 12).

Women (round-robin): Sri Lanka 81 (Dhanushka 15, Inoka 14, Kumarine 16, Pramila 12) bt Tamil Nadu 71 (S. Kokila 23, Lakshmi Devi 20).

Wednesday's results: Men: Group A: Andhra Pradesh 58 (J. Pankaj 17, A. Srinivas 10, P. Sivanagaraju 10, S. Vinay Yadav 11) bt Sri Lanka 48 (Chaminda de Alwis 10, Gayan Meedeniya 14).

Women: Kerala 50 (P. Lajitha 10) bt Andhra Pradesh 31 (Poornima 18).

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