Sridhar hits a high; India down Malaysia

The Indian cagers continued their winning ways when they beat Malaysia 81-63 in the second group B match in the 22nd Men’s Asian Basket...

The Indian cagers continued their winning ways when they beat Malaysia 81-63 in the second group B match in the 22nd Men’s Asian Basketball Championships at the Heida Gymnasium in Harbin, China, today.

If the credit for yesterday’s win over Kuwait went to Parminder Singh and Desraj, today’s hero was S Sridhar. The Indian Overseas Bank employee, combining well with the veteran Parminder, did the bulk of scoring — he topscored with 36 points.

As usual, ballhandler Sambaji Kadam was simply unstoppable today and his fine feeding made the task all the more tough for the Malaysians who ran out of ideas. Kadam was helped in the job by Gopinath whenever the latter made it to the centre. Skipper Robinson, who left the scoring to his teammates Sridhar and Parminder, concentrated himself on defence and rebound collection. That proved very vital as he fitted into the dual roal nicely.

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By the end of the first quarter, India had taken a lead of 25-13 and keeping the momentum going in the second, they increased it to 43-29. After the break, the Indians moved along well with better screening and forcing the Malaysians on the back foot. The unnecessary fouls by the Malaysians also helped the Indians’ cause.

Sitting pretty at 59-40 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Indian hoopsters allwoed some leeway and it enabled the Malaysians score rather freely. In fact, both India and Malaysia managed equal number of points — 22 each — in the last quarter. But then the Indians could afford to relax, as chief coach K K Chansooriya said, ‘‘because there was never any threat of the game slipping out of their hands.’’

Brief scores

India 81 (S Sridhar 36, Parminder Singh 14, Desraj 8, S Robinson 8, Gopinath 7) bt Malaysia 62 (Satyaseelan 24): HT: 43.29.