Chhattisgarh displayed its bounty of talent yet again as it derailed Railways for the second year running in the 65th National basketball championship at the Sukhadia Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.
The Chhattisgarh women, who had beaten Railways in the final in New Delhi last time, won 83-79, after leading 46-32 at half-time in the semifinals.
It was high-quality entertainment for the packed stands as the towering Poonam Chaturvedi played a pivotal role in scripting a memorable triumph for Chhattisgarh. As coach Rajesh Patel wished, the team got off to a flier, taking a 24-13 at the end of the first quarter.
What revealed Chhattisgarh’s character was the manner in which it responded to the challenge after conceding the lead to Railways early on in the fourth quarter; the margin had dwindled to a mere three points at the end of the third quarter. The livewire of the team, Sharanjeet Kaur, was out with five fouls with more than a quarter still to go. To make matters worse, Poonam was missing baskets too.
However, Sangeeta Kaur and L. Deepa, with their speedy runs and imaginative play, turned the tide along with Aakanksha Singh, who came up with timely three-pointers. Chhattisgarh enjoyed an eight-point advantage with two minutes left for the hooter, and decided to play out time. Though Anju Lakra and Renu Maurya scored three-pointers, it was too little, too late to change the equation.
Anju played her heart out, slotting home five three-pointers. Along with Raja Priyadarshini, who did a lion’s share of the scoring with 36 points, she kept Railways in the fray. Quite remarkably, Railways came up short despite having in its ranks three Chhattisgarh players who had won the championship last time.
It will be interesting to see how well Delhi matches up against Chhattisgarh. Against Kerala, Delhi made a slow start but accelerated to lead 26-25 at half-time and 48-45 at the end of the third quarter.
A string of three-pointers and a tight defence in the third quarter saw Delhi pull it off.
Kerala seemed to be short of ideas, especially with the star player Stephy Nixon being woefully off-colour. Poojamol and Neenumol did their bit but were unable to rise to the challenge in the end.
Kerala started sharply, leading 9-0 in the first three minutes, but the next point came only 10 seconds before the whistle to signal the end of the first quarter. That gave a hint of the turn of things to unfold. Kerala had stumbled at the hands of the eventual champion Chhattisgarh in the last edition, and looked unsure of its game yet again.
Uttarakhand vs TNIn the men’s section, title aspirant Uttarakhand was far too professional to give even a glimmer of hope for Haryana which had got past last year’s runner-up, Punjab, in the quarterfinals.
Uttarakhand had a steady start and tightened its grip as the match progressed, showing its strike power through its star line-up, spearheaded by Vishesh Bhriguvanshi.
Uttarakhand tightened its defence in the third quarter to stop all avenues for Haryana, which relied more on outside shooting for points — it had eight three-pointers.
Playing like a championIn the other semifinal, Tamil Nadu played like a champion, weathering a Services storm.
Leading 40-39 at half-time and remaining locked 60-60 at the end of three quarters, the defending champion, which had lost a league match against Uttarakhand, came up with crucial baskets, especially through Amjyot Singh in the last five minutes. It closed out the match in spectacular style, winning 86-73.
The results (semifinals):
Men: Uttarakhand 86 (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 26, Riyazuddin 18, Amritpal Singh16) bt Haryana 64 (Himanshu Sharma 19, Deepak Rathee 15, Hemant 10).
Tamil Nadu 86 (Amjyot Singh 29, A. Arvind 22, P. Akilan 12) bt Services 73 (Narender Kumar Grewal 29, Jairam Jat 11, Sambaji Kadam 12, Pravesh Rathee 10).
Women: Chhattisgarh 83 (Poonam Chaturvedi 25, Sangeeta Kaur 17, Sharanjeet Kaur 16, L. Deepa 14, Aakanksha Singh 11) bt Railways 79 (Raja Priyadarshini 36, Anju Lakra 17).
Delhi 71 (Pratima Singh 20, Vinti Hooda 15, Prashanti Singh 14, Raspreet Sidhu 12, Preeti Kumari 10) bt Kerala 63 (P.S. Jeena 18, P.S. Neenumol 12, K.S. Poojamol 10).
