Central Rly qualify with thrilling win

Income-Tax, who finished second in Pool B,will clash with Bombay Engineering Group, Kirkee in the other semi-final. They lost their last league match 68-119 to SNG with captain Mahesh Naidu suffering an injury and which prevented him taking further part in the match.

SNG, who had beaten Central YMCA in a late match yesterday, trounced Navy 96-64 and showed no signs of fatigue after having played two matches in less than ten hours.

SNG built their victory on the fine shooting of Hemant Wagade who sunk four three-pointers in the first half to give Navy a 55-45 lead. Navy’s effectiveness was reduced greatly in the second half when their sharp shooter, A P Singh, was restricted to just nine points in the second half. He had scored 22 in the first half.

In Pool A action, Bombay Engineering Group, Kirkee, who had won their two matches, kept their slate clean by defeating Bombay YMCA 75-59.

Results

Pool B: Shivaji Nagar Gymkhana, Nagpur 96 (Pankaj Deshmukh 12, Shashwat Gokhale 18, S Garge 14, Shatrughana Gokhale 16, H Wagade 25, S Gainkar 10) bt Indian Navy A P Singh 31, Joshy Verghese 12, Jameel 10). SNG 119 (Hemant Wagade 23, Pankaj Deshmukh 22, Srihari Garge 20) bt Income-Tax 68 (Stephen Rodrigues 30, Wilfred Bradford 15).

Pool A: BEG (Gurmeet Singh 20, Vasudev Thitte 19, Om Prakash 14) bt Bombay YMCA (Sirajuddin Khan 28, Nasir Ansari 12).