Madhya Pradesh men’s team win bronze medal

*74th Junior National Basketball Championship ** Host women’s team gets fourth place*

Narendra Bhale

Indore: Madhya Pradesh boys team lived up to the expectations and won bronze medal in the 74th National Junior Basketball Championship held in the city. On the other hand, MP’s girls team, which performed well in the league matches, missed the last chance and finished fourth.
In the bronze medal match in the men’s category held at the local Emerald Heights International School, Madhya Pradesh faced the strong team of Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh team is considered strong in the domestic circuit, but Madhya Pradesh team displayed better strategy and understanding on the court and won in a one-sided manner by 71-49 points. From the beginning of the match, the players of Madhya Pradesh started taking the lead, due to which the team of Uttar Pradesh came under pressure. Due to this, the players of Uttar Pradesh kept making mistakes at important moments. Rohan Sejwal scored 26 points for Madhya Pradesh. Kirtiraj Chandrawat contributed 16 points while captain Ajay contributed 13 points in the team’s victory. Harshit Tomar scored 17 points from Uttar Pradesh’s side. Apart from him, Jatin scored 11 points and Vedant Ranaut scored 9 points.
In the men’s category, Punjab defeated Tamil Nadu and secured the fifth position. This match was one-sided and Punjab’s team won by 81-54 points. Jaddu Maan scored 28 points for Punjab while captain Sahibjeet Singh scored 22 points. Captain Mithun R scored 19 points for Tamil Nadu’s team, but other players could not contribute much. Dhanush N. Venkat scored eight points and K. Gautam scored seven points. Haryana defeated Kerala and secured the seventh position. Haryana scored 59 points while Kerala’s team could reach only 42 points. Ankush scored 15 points while Aryan scored 13 and Aditya contributed 10 points for the winning team. K. Javi Jeevan scored 10 points while LR Niranjan scored nine points.

MP Basketball Association President Kulwinder Singh Gill and General Secretary Avinash Anand said that in the third place match in the women’s category, Madhya Pradesh team faced Maharashtra. This match was very tough and the host team was in a good position in the first three quarters. But after this the team kept making mistakes on important occasions. Maharashtra defeated MP by a margin of just three points, 69-66 points. Ananya Bhavsar scored 18 points and Gunjan Mantri scored 16 points from Maharashtra’s side. Team captain Muskan Singh scored 12 points for her team. On the other hand, captain Gunvi Agarwal contributed 16 points while Ananya Maheshwari contributed 15 points from Madhya Pradesh’s side. Samya Wadhwani scored 10 points. In women’s category, Haryana defeated Tamil Nadu by 79-61 points and secured fifth place. Anjali scored 25 points for the winning team, while Juana Chrysoline and Sajitha M Narul scored 13-13 points from Tamil Nadu’s side. Telangana defeated Gujarat in a one-sided fashion by 78-51 points and secured seventh position in the women’s category. Shanvi Kolishetti scored the highest 24 points for Telangana. Captain Parinisita contributed 15 points. Archie Patel scored 18 points for Gujarat. Ahana George scored 12 points while Aradhana Patel contributed 9 points.