Maharashtra crash

MUMBAI, March 3: Maharashtra did not get their fourth wind and went down tamely 45-50 to Madras Customs in the inaugural Bombay YMCA All-Ind...

MUMBAI, March 3: Maharashtra did not get their fourth wind and went down tamely 45-50 to Madras Customs in the inaugural Bombay YMCA All-India Invitational basketball tournament at the Chembur YMCA courts, Gandhi Maidan today.

In the opening match, Indian Bank trounced Bombay YMCA 90-53 in a Group B match. The exchanges were close till 17-all in the first half after which Indian Bank, who have two former Indian captains 8212; Jayshankar Menon and C v Sunny 8212; ran amok.

After the initial period, Indian Bank, led by Sunny8217;s fast breaks, converted many turnarounds to a comfortable lead.

The Maharashtra-Madras Customs Group A match was expected to be close but the former8217;s lack of cohesion was evident on the court.

They started poorly and did not even find the right combination. Madras Customs ran up a 10-point lead 24-14 due to the way they dominated the boards and the ineffective Maharashtra forwards, Shibu George and Pankaj Deshmukh.

Maharashtra8217;s revival was led by Pankaj Gokhale 18 points.Maharashtra led 22-21 at half-time.

After half-time, it was the same story for Maharashtra as they fumbled and never got going. But despite this, they twice caught up with Madras Customs. In the final stretch, Deshmukh revived his side8217;s hopes with a three-pointer. But Devanathan, who won the Man of the Match award, and Satish Kumar guided the Chennai side to victory.

Results

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Group A: Madras Customs 50 G Sirikumar 13, P Devanathan 14, Joseph Xavier 11 bt Maharashtra 50 Pankaj Deshmukh 18, Clarence Menezes 8.

Group B: Indian Bank 90 Jayshankar Menon 17, B Sarvanan 11, R Suryashekhar 10, CV Sunny 8 bt Bombay YMCA 53 Vijay Neygandhi 16, Bob Keeler 9.

Chirag overcomes Dquot;Lima

Chirag Ramakrishnan scored a convincing win over Allan Dquot;Lima 112-68, 98-84 in the Anthony Dquot;Cruz Open Handicap snooker tournament, today at the Catholic Gykhana and sponsored by TBZ Jhaveri Bazar and Bharat Petroleum.

Results: Chirag Ramakrishnan 10 bt Allan Dquot;Lima 55 112-68, 98-84; L D8217;souza45 bt P Idnani 55; S Kamdar 55 bt D D8217;souza 50; S Parekh 50 bt R Hemani 55 123-97, 92-132, 113-94; T Pereira 60 bt S Sarkar 60 114-71, 113-99; S Ghadge 30 bt D Fernandes 60 105-71, 102-92.