India kick-started their title defence in the South Asian Basketball Championship in fine fashion, recording two comfortable victories at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here on Friday.
The Indians humbled a lowly Nepal 90-37 in their first encounter before posting a huge 122-39 win over Bangladesh in the second game.
Though the national side was missing a few of their key players, nothing seemed to affect them as the newcomers lived up to their billing, coming up with some quality play.
In their evening fixture, the Indians, led by Rikin Pethani, raced to a comfortable 18-4 lead in the initial five minutes of the game. The 6’8’’tall centre made sure that there were no hiccups at the back as his turnover played a crucial role in holding up the Indian defence against a quick moving Bangladeshi attack and setting the up the Indian attackers on the run.
However, it was the local boy Arvind A who proved to be the stand-out performer, ending the game as the top-scorer with 19 points and five rebounds and combining well with Venkatesh Prasanna. But before the Arvind-Prasanna duo could cast their spell over the Bangladeshis, it was the experienced pair of Pethani, Joginder Singh and Pratham Singh who set the stage alight with their link-up play in the opening quarter.
Pratham, who was dealing in three pointers, scored 15 points and netted three rebounds, while the 27-year-old point guard Joginder finished with nine points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Skipper Pethani had 12 points, 11 rebounds and two assists to his name. With the game almost certain to land in India’s favour, coach GLR Prasad rested his experienced players, giving the bench a platform to prove their calibre. And the boys didn’t disappoint their coach. While Arvind made his presence felt with some juicy hop-jump-and-shoot moves, power forward Gurvinder Singh Gill entertained the crowd with his dunks as India dismantled their opposition without mercy.
In the morning session, power forward Narender Grewal top scored with 17 points and three rebounds as India brushed Nepal aside in the opener. Supporting him was point guard A Aravind who scored 13 points, fetched 10 rebounds and also setup Pethani with a delicate lay-off.
Playing their first game after the 2014 Asian Games, the Indians took time to settle down. However, the side came back strongly in the second quarter to enjoy a comfortable 50-20 lead.
The following two quarters saw the Indians sit back and defend deep. The strategy payed off as Nepal failed to find a way through the tight Indian defence as they could garner just 18 points in the final two quarters as India’s man-to-man marking made the proceedings tough for them.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka also began with a big win, posting a thumping 100-57 verdict over Bhutan.
Bhutan suffered another defeat on the day, losing 58-72 to Nepal.
Results: Bangladesh: 76 (Mithun Sarkan 24) bt Maldives: 65 (Mohamed Zilaal 26); India: 90 (Narender Grewal 17) bt Nepal: 37 (Yukta Ram Bhakta Mathema 10); Sri Lanka: 100 (Praneeth Udumalagala 28) bt Bhutan: 57 (Chimi Wangchuk 12); India: 122 (A Arvind 19) bt Bangladesh: 39 (Mithun Sarkan 12); Nepal: 72 (Ashim 18) bt Bhutan: 58 (Wangchuk 17).
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