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Tuesday, Jan 06, 2009
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Uttarakhand surprises Punjab

K. Keerthivasan

Basketball / Indian Railways men advance

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

DEFT TOUCH: Uttarakhand’s Riazuddin was at his classy best helping his team surprise Punjab.

SURAT: First he rolls it with his left hand, looks around, and then rolls the ball with his right. He then feints a pass, drives-in with express speed and rolls his left hand in mid-air and the ball serenely lands into the basket.

This has been Riazuddin’s trademark method of scoring all these years. Only that he temporarily forgot that he possess a huge bag of tricks.

Struggling, by his lofty standards, in the Karp-Jyoti 59th Senior National basketball championships, Riazuddin, one of India’s best playmakers, laid to rest the whispers that he’s over the hill with a performance that stood out for its finesse and execution.

Big league

Uttarakhand’s 67-50 win over last year’s runner-up Punjab in the quarterfinals has given the side, with three current international players and seven of them having some experience of playing at the highest levels, a reassertion that it does, after all, belongs to the big league.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu reached the semifinals with a 90-60 win over Karnataka in the men’s quarterfinals. TN will take on Uttarakhand.

After its loss to Services in the last league match where Riazuddin and Trideep Rai, two of the team’s performers, failed to click, there were snide remarks that Uttarakhand players were not fully fit and that they had become complacent. It all fell flat on a day when Uttarakhand made a headstart and packed its defence during a tight second and third quarter well and did well to maintain the lead till the final whistle.

There were quite a few momentum shifts in the match. Despite a handy 11-point lead at half time, Uttarakhand didn’t have it easy in the third.

With imposing players like Jagdeep Singh and Talwinderjit Singh, Punjab fought back in style. It was Jagdeep’s two-pointer scored with typical aggression and fire, that settled the scores at 35-each in the third quarter. Trideep and Riazuddin were involved in some beautiful set-pieces that proved their ball skills were intact. Punjab remained in the contest even during the last five minutes. Desperate to stop Uttarakhand, Punjab committed fouls on Riazuddin and paid the price for it.

AP goes down

Indian Railways men entered the semifinals defeating Andhra Pradesh 78-40. AP fought hard and went down with guns blazing.

Pivot Jaleel and ball handler Sivanagaraju definitely had Railways on the backfoot on many occasions, their combination giving a robust Railways defence several tough moments. Railways takes on Services in the last four clash.

Tamil Nadu women, whomade a quiet entry into the semifinals by defeating Karnataka 66-54, will meet Delhi next.

The results (quarterfinals): Men: Indian Railways 78 (Jasjot Singh 16, Yadwinder Singh 12, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 11, Snehpal Singh 10)) bt AP 40 (A. Jaleel 13); Uttarakhand 67 (Riazuddin 27, Murlikrishna 13, M. Anoop 11) bt Punjab 50 (Jagdeep Singh 18, Talwinderjit Singh 11); Services 83 (Dalip Kumar 22, Jai Ram Jat 15) bt Chhattisgarh 55 (Pratham Singh 20, Shravan Kumar 14); TN 90 (C.V. Dinesh 21, Vineeth Revi Mathew 17, S. Robinson 14) bt Karnataka 60 (Kaushal Ravi Kumar 20, Sanjay Raj 11).

Women: Indian Railways 111 (Geethu Anna Jose 26, Renjini Jose 17, M. Pushpa 17, P. Anitha 13) bt Maharashtra 45 (Renjusha Mathew 12); Chhattisgarh 84 (Kavita 31, Deepa 13) bt AP 34; TN 66 (S. Kokila 16, Neena Hareendran 13, B. Sangeetha 13, Sunitha Suren 10) bt Karnataka 54 (K. Smitha 17, Deepa Shankar 13, Anu Mathew 13); Delhi 108 (Shiba Maggon 23, Prashanti Singh 21, Raspreet 16, Akansha Singh 13) bt UP 44 (Renu Mauria 14, Anamika 10).

The losers knockout (semifinals): Men: HP 68 bt Orissa 57; MP 75 bt Maharashtra 68.

Women: Rajasthan 57 bt Orissa 51; Chandigarh 68 bt Haryana 40.

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