Hip, hoop, hurray: India book berth in Asian basketball meet

BENGALURU: Aravind Annadurai celebrated his 22rd birthday in fitting fashion, bagging 22 points to lead India to a thumping 93-44 win over Sri Lanka and clinch their second straight South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium on Sunday.
The 6'7" Tamil Nadu centre, who sat out of the matches against Bhutan and Maldives due to an ankle injury , saved his best for the last with a clinical performance as the unbeaten hosts booked their place in Group A along with Iran, Malaysia and Japan in the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship to be held in Hunan, China, in September.
The well-oiled Indian juggernaut, which had as many as five players making their senior national debut, finished the tournament on top of the table with a whopping +332 point difference, followed by Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Bhutan. India's defensive superiority , backed by the pres ence of their towering centres, gave their frontcourt players ample time to cover the court and complete transition layups with ease.
The island nation team, who began with much gumption, struggled to cope with India's tight man-to-man defence and their attack began wearing out in the third quarter as the hosts' stretched to a 75-36 lead. Sri Lankan coach Panduka Ranasinghe was at his animated best courtside, instructing his boys to focus on collecting the rebounds and not give India's big centres Rikin Pethani and Aravind any freedom inside the paint.
The plan worked well for most of the game, but there was no strategy in place to stop Pratham Singh (17), Joginder Singh Samran (13) and 'One Hand Shooter' Narender Grewal (12), who kept the fifteen-foot jumpers rolling for India.
"This was a big win for us because we achieved it in the absence of key players such as Amjyot Singh, Amritpal Singh and Satnam Singh Bhamara to name a few. It was great to see our youngsters perform brilliantly," Pratham said.