Madhu stars for Indian Railways

Tamil Nadu too has an easy outing against Delhi

In full flow: Pushpa, right, with 22 points led the way as Delhi found Tamil Nadu too hot to handle.

Defending champion Indian Railways opened its campaign in the women’s section with a resounding 82-47 win over Karnataka in the 69th senior National basketball championship at the Sisdar Sports Complex courts here on Saturday.

It was a totally new environment for the teams but Railways had seen the best and worst of it. They quickly settled down in the new indoor sports complex, inaugurated by Vijaybhai Rupani, the Gujarat Chief Minister earlier in the day, and started firing on all cylinders.

Madhu Kumari (19 points) was at her best and got ample support from Sitamani (14) and Sruthi Menon (11).

Strong contender Tamil Nadu also had a relatively easy day out. With Pushpa (22) in full flow, the Delhi women found it pretty hot from the start. Sathiya (15) and Dharshini (14) played their part as well for Tamil Nadu.

In the men’s section, hot favourite Punjab, riding on Jagdeep Singh’s (21) brilliance, got past a fighting Karnataka 85-77.

The results: Men: Group A: Punjab 85 (Jagdeep Singh 21, Amritpal Singh15, Gurvinder Singh Gill 14, Rajbir Singh 12, Arshpreet Singh Buller 10, Gaurav Patwal 10) bt Karnataka 77 (Anil Kumar 20, M. Harissh 16, A. Aravind 16, Rahul Sarath10).

Rajasthan 89 (Sharad Dadich 31, Karan Khan 22, Gaurav Chandel 19) bt Gujarat 71 (Harpal Siingh Vaghela 23, Indervijay Gohil 15, Vivek Goti 14).

Group B: Indian Railways 75 (Rakesh Singh 21, Himanshu Sharma 17, Lovneet Singh 15) bt Chandigarh 74 (Amit 24, Jain Shokhanda 21, Ravi Bhardwaj 17).

Group C: Delhi 63 (Vishal Hooda 15, Sunil Kumar 15, Arshdeep Singh 15) bt Mizoram 45 (Zonun Snaga 22, Lalrina Renthalei 16).

Group D: Himachal Pradesh 54 (Vikram Thakur 26) bt Nagaland 35 (Kevisesituo 9).

Group E: Maharashtra 73 (Ajinkya Asokrao Mani 18, Subam Yadav 11) bt J&K 51 (Iqbal 10).

West Bengal 59 (P. Ragunath 17, Bhrigendra 16) bt Puducherry 45 (M. Achuthan 14).

Haryana 66 (Rinku 17, Sahil13) bt Bihar 45 (Sanjeev Kumar 17, Abhishi Pratap 12).

Uttar Pradesh 63 (Pulkit 14, Tushal Singh 11) bt Jharkhand 27.

Women: Group A: Indian Railways 82 (Madhu Kumari 19, Sitamani Tudu 14, Sruthi Menon 11) bt Karnataka 47 (Lopamudra Timmaiah 14, Anusha 11, Varsha Nandini 10).

Tamil Nadu 64 (Pushpa 22, S. Sathiya 15, Dharshini 14) bt Delhi 49 (Raspreet Sidhu 15).

Group C: Punjab 83 (Anmolpreeth Kaur 24, Rajandeep Kaur 21) bt Uttrakhand 19.

Group E: MP 74 (Nima Doma Bhutia 25, Namrata 16) bt Bihar 54 (Divya Pandey 20, Kiran Yadav 12).

Group F: Rajasthan 64 (Nisha Sharma 33, Rashi Kotani 12) bt Assam 31 (Kiran Kumari 16).

Jharkhand 59 (A. Samad 15, Jayakumari 10) bt J & K 29.