Central, Western Rly eves post lacklustre victories

MUMBAI, APRIL 6: Central Railway women began the defence of their title on an indifferent note, struggling to beat Northern Railway 56-47...

MUMBAI, APRIL 6: Central Railway women began the defence of their title on an indifferent note, struggling to beat Northern Railway 56-47, in the Inter-Railway Basketball Championship at Nagpada here today.

Despite the advantage of playing on a court where they practice through the year, the champions were run close by the northerners, bolstered by the inclusion of Delhi’s junior internationals Shivani Gupta and Mandeep Kaur.

Fluency was also missing from Western Railway’s opener in the evening, and the 70-25 win over North-Eastern, fielding a new team after lying low for a few years, was unconvincing. Though international Ivy Cherian was impressive on pivot, and, surprisingly, played a full 38 minutes against an unfancied opponent.

The inclusion of speedy international Sheeba Maggon, back after a truncated stint with a US college, lent the Western offence bite, as Sheeba combined well with ball-handler Shanti Saldanha. But too many turnovers and a not-so-comforting shooting performance must be a cause for concern to coach Riaz Qadri. Qadri said, “This was the first match and the girls are just getting into rhythm. That is why I wanted them to play for longer durations.”

Results

Men: Western Railway, Ajmer 71 (Ram Kumar 13, Ranjeet Singh 10) bt North Frontier Railway 22 (Rajib Bora 13) HT 37-8; DLW 69 (Amit Singh 19, SK Hooda 10, Sandeep Yadav 12) bt DCW 46 (Manjit Singh 17, Mahesh Kumar 11) HT 38-22; Southern Railway 69 (S Vainadeyan 11, R Shivashankar 12, J Jayaprakash 13) bt North-Eastern Railway 45 (Bhawar Singh 22) HT 43-29; South-Central Railway 73 (D Babu 13, Venkat Rajesh 19, Ravi Kumar 19) bt Northern Railway 46 (Tekpal 14) HT 30-30.

Women: Western Railway 70 (Ivy Cherian 22, Sheeba Maggon 12, Lincy Joseph 10, Meena Singh 10) bt North-Eastern Railway 25 (Avneet Kaur 7) HT 27-13; Central Railway 56 (Geo Jose 10, Jiji Jose 14, Sindhu 10) bt Northern Railway 47 (Shivani Gupta 10, Poonam 21) HT 35-28.