Punjab men and Tamil Nadu women triumph in basketball

Punjab retains men's title, Tamil Nadu wins women's crown; Punjab shocks Tamil Nadu 80-64

Looking stronger with many new coming in, Punjab shocked National champion Tamil Nadu 80-64 and retained the men’s basketball title in the National Games at the Maharaja Pratap sports complex here on Sunday. Earlier, Tamil Nadu won the women’s title, brushing aside defending champion Kerala 79-46.

Tamil Nadu had defeated Punjab comfortably in the recent National final at Bhavnagar, but Sunday was a very different day. The match was close till the first half but Punjab grabbed a 10-point lead in the third quarter and built on it to emerge an easy winner.

“ A lot of people were doubting us after the National, no one can doubt us now. At the National, we were not the full team,” Punjab captain Amjyot Gill, also the champion’s top-scorer, told The Hindu. “Six or seven of our players are coming from the Railways. In Punjab, we don’t have that much departments like Tamil Nadu has, two of our team members are still not playing, if they were also here we would have conquered the whole of India.”

Tamil Nadu women had also strengthened the side with Railway players for the National Games.

“We have four Railway players in the team,” said Dharshini Thirunavukkarasu, the Tamil Nadu captain who was part of the Railway team which won the recent National where she walked away with the Most Valuable Player Award.

Kerala had played a close semifinal against Karnataka on Saturday and appeared a weary lot in the third quarter on the day when it could manage only five points compared to Tamil Nadu’s 21.

“After playing a tight semifinal last evening, it was like playing two matches in a day since the final was in the morning,” said Kerala coach Jijo Paul. “We did not have proper rest.”