Delhi girls capitulate after a remarkable showing

NEW DELHI, October 4: Delhi girls have never had it so good before. Since their wonderful showing in the Ludhiana Nationals, they have em...

NEW DELHI, October 4: Delhi girls have never had it so good before. Since their wonderful showing in the Ludhiana Nationals, they have emerged from the shadow of their past to pose dangers to the best of regional outfits. The team, which was pieced together only a year and a half ago, has gained in strength.

Competing in a major tournament after the Ludhiana Nationals, they lost their first game to Punjab by nine points yesterday. And today in a bravely fought league game in the Master Prithvi Nath Memorial Basketball tournament, they went down by a mere point (52-53) to South Central Railway at the Ajmal Khan Park here.

In their second match, however, SCR were subdued by a determined Eastern Railway, who won their first game 68-46 today. The latter went down to Central Railway 47-63 in a late night match yesterday.

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In the men’s section, Punjab Police toyed with Punjab Red to log their second straight win in pool A 81-19, India Juniors also notched up a stright successive 73-40 victory when they beat Prithvi Nath Club and Border Security Force downed ONGC 81-61 to keep alive their chances of making the semi-final grade from pool B.

Both Punjab Police and India Juniors will settle it out between themselves about the top spot from their pool when they clash in their final league game tomorrow. Otherwise, both have virtually made sure of their places in the semi-finals.

The Delhi girls had a forlorn look after losing by a solitary point. It was understandable for it was a case of so near and yet so far. They had staged a remarkable recovery towards the close, particularly when Nishitha Chaudhary excelled with her outside shooting in the last eight minutes to close in on SCR’s lead. With just 30 seconds left on the clock, Delhi gained ball possession and Nishitha was accurate with her shot. But the experienced SCR consumed the remaining 22 seconds with dribbling and passing to romp home winners.

Delhi skipper Shivani had a bad game and looked seemingly tired after an arduous journey to Chandigarh and back on the same day. That, in fact, took the toll on Delhi as Shivani could not score as freely as she normally does. The other experienced girl, Mandeep, was there and it was left to her and Nishitha to take control of Delhi’s proceedings. They did it admirably with excellent feeding from Sushila and Shivani, to some extent, only to capitulate in the end.

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Nishitha topscored with 27, including five three-pointers, while Mandeep contributed 15 points. For SCR, Sisley (18), Laiji (17) and Anandhi (12) were the main contributors.

Scores
Men: Punjab Police 81( Parminder Sr 19, Preet Pal 13, Gurkirpal Singh 12, Gagnesh Kumar 9) bt Punjab Red 19 — HT: 58-12; India Juniors 73 (Ranjeet 20, Des Raj 13, Robin Das Vinay 8) bt Prithvi Nath Club 40 (Cheick 13, Arun Kumar 10) HT: 33-13; BSF 81 (Vipin Kumar 22, Satyanarayana 12, Deepinder Hooda 12) bt ONGC 61 (Suresh Kumar 17, Surya Vir Singh 15, Rajender Singh 9) HT 39-27.

Women: South Central Railway 53 (Sisley 18, Laiji 17, Anandhi 12) bt Delhi 52 (Nishitha Chaudhary 27, Mandeep 15) HT 28-24; Central Railway 63 (Jeo Jose 22, Annamma 12, Jiji Jose 11) bt Eastern Railway 47 (Philomena Joseph 11, Rekha Chaudhary 10, Aparna Ghosh 7) HT 39-31; Eastern Railway 68 (Aparna Ghosh 16, Rekha Chaudhary 15, P.N. Shantha 11, Philomena Joseph 10) bt South Central Railway 46 (Anandhi 16, Sreeja 12, Sisely 9) HT 32-31.