India toys with Nepal

By A. Das Sharma

GUWAHATI, MARCH 3. The Indian juggernant continued to roll as the host country demolished Nepal 125-33 in the second day of the round-robin league matches of the inaugural OIL SAARC basketball championship here at the NF Railway Sports Complex, Maligaon on Saturday. Earlier, Bangladesh defeated a spirited Maldives team 94-71 winning its first match of the tournament.

As the league phase will only determine the position for the knock-out semifinals, each team now plays to avoid the possible meeting with the highly favoured host. The points table at the end of the second day and four matches had India leading the four-team table with four points from two wins while Bangladesh and Maldives were tied in the second spot with three points each from a win and a loss. Nepal, losing both its matches, was at two points (a loss earns a team one point) to be at the bottom of the league table.

As for the Indian performance, it was overwhelmingly superior to the men from Himalayan kingdom. The first session of the match containing two quarters of ten minutes each had the host team racing to a massive lead as captain Parminder Singh and Mahipal Singh regularly found the basket. The dribb - of the Indians was good and the forwards got lot of good balls from their colleagues. S. P. Kadam and Desraj initiated the moves well. The first session, which saw India leading 61-15, had Parminder leading the charts with 17 points. Parminder's younger colleague Mahipal was close behind with 13 points, that included two three- pointers.

Following the change of ends after the first quarter, India changed its tactics and resorted to a passing game substantially reducing the dribbling. As the Indian coach, Meshar Channeria admitted later, ``the boys definitely played better as compared to what was the performance against Bangladesh'' when the host won 104-51 here on Friday.

The coach added that the team is showing steady improvement and it augurs well for the team which is preparing for the forthcoming Asian basketball meet later this year. ``The junior players are shaping up well and the communication within the team is improving,'' the coach added. The coach should have meant the like Mahipal in the first half and later the Asian All-Star player from Tamil Nadu S. Robinson who scored 15 points.

Another achievement for the host of was the consistency, in whatever technique employed, all through the match. Both the halfs recorded almost equal number of points a the host finished with 125 points. The final equation had Parminder showing his vintage class to net 26 points while Mahipal and Robinson tied their achievement (15 points) to remain close behind.

Nepal had little to boast about its showing and the 33 points it amassed appeared to come from laxity on the part of the host.

Maldives' performance against Nepal was better. But the island nation found the tall Bangladesh player too difficult to negotiate. Despite being able to outclass its opponent on speed, Maldives could not finish many of the attack as the Bangladesh defenders blocked the attempted lay- ups under the basket owing to their superior height. The 67-65 win against Nepal on Friday had Maldives high on spirit and enjoyed a 20-19 lead in the first quarter.

Bangladesh, mainly owing to the good work of its pivot Mohammed Rasheduzzaman, enhanced its scoring in the second quarter. The half-time score thus stood at 45-34 in favour of Bangladesh. The second quarter saw the best from both the team scored 26 points as against Maldives' 14. Though Maldives tried to reduce the deficit its attempt went in vain.

The third quarter had Bangladesh seeing the best of its two forwards Rasheduzzaman and Mohammed Mizanur Rahaman Tito - both of who shared the bulk of 23 points the team scored. Trailing 40- 68 in the final quarter Maldives guided by its nifty forward Abdulla Mueen, found more points coming up against a defensive Bangladesh. The lack of a defensive strategy became apparent yet again as Bangladesh replied with a two-pointer each time Maldives found the basket. For Bangladesh Rasheduzzaman remained the highest scorer with 33 points while Mueen netted the highest 19, including one three pointer, for Maldives.

The results:

Bangladesh (Mohammad Rasheduzzaman 33, Mohammad Mizanur Rahaman Tito 25, Dilawar Hussain 23) bt Maldives (Abdulla Mueen 19, Abdul Nafin Thaufeeq 12) 94-71 (45-34).

India (Parminder Singh 26, Mahipal Singh 15 (2 three-pointers), S. Robinson 15, Mohammad Islahuddin 13) bt Nepal (R. Maharjan 13 (1 three- pointer) 125-33 (61-15).

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