Bhubaneswar: India after a sluggish start failing to score in the first 4 minutes of the game made their mark with a superb performance and continued their winning spree outclassing Bangladesh 111-47 in the final round robin game of the FIBA U 18 Asian Championship 22 SABA Qualifiers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Cuttack. India with their second successive win in the 3 team qualifiers will represent the SABA sub zone at the FIBA U 18 Asian Championship scheduled at Teheran, Iran from Aug 21.
Exuding confidence going into the game after their convincing win over Maldives in their opening encounter, the hosts just could not continue from where they left off, dominated the proceedings after Lavish scored with a successful free throw which was followed by a dunk from Jitendra Kumar Sharma. Once they set the tempo and pace, India consolidated the lead on as the match progressed and took a 24-12 lead at the first quarter before ending the half with the score line at 58-21.
Captain Harsh Dugar along with Kushal Singh, Jitendra Kumar and Lokendra Singh were good in offence and with success coming their way from their attempts, their defence stood the challenge as close man-to-man marking resorted by the Indian team put pressure on the Bangladesh side who failed to create openings and their offence went disarray and committed far too many turnovers. India also did well in controlling the rebounds as they enjoyed better height advantage.
The Bangladesh captain Endadul Hoque Piash led his side admirably but the other just could not provide the support and barring a couple of sporadic chances which came their way saw Jubayer, Shahriar Ahmed and Manik Hasan scoring.
The second half saw a totally transformed Indian team as they toyed with the hapless opponents. The coaches Veselin Matic and Mohit Bhandari dug deep into their bench strength enabling the players to go all out on court while the losers lost steam.
India dominance continued through the game and the vociferous crowd egging on the hosts, India hardly faltered and it was a treat to watch the team coordinate well, spread the defence, use the flanks and make optimum use of the chances that came their way to lead 87-30 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
Score: India 111 (Lokendra Singh 16 Kushal Singh 20 Jaideep Rathore 12 Harsh Dagar 11 Janme Jay Singh 9 Udit Ravish 11 ) bt Bangladesh 47 (Endadul Hoque Piash 17 Manik Hasan 11)
