The All India Basketball Tournament for Men and Women were conducted by the Coimbatore District Basketball Association . The tournaments began from 27th May 2019 to 1st June,2019 in the VOC Park Basketball Court.
8 teams in men and women’s division entered the tournaments and the The grand finals of the 54th Nachimuthu Gounder Trophy for Men saw Indian Bank fight Income Tax Dept and the 18th CRI Pumps Trophy for Women saw Southern Central Railways and Southern Railways fight for the CRI Trophy.
In the men’s finals, the early luck seemed to be on the Income Tax’s side with Jeeva and Bopanna scoring several points. Jeeva’s skills along with his height gave him the needed advantage and Bopanna’s proper circulation of the ball provided a good start for IT but it was all in favor of Indian Bank for the next few minutes.
Gineeb Benny, Hariram and Baladhaneshwar delivered a super-trio ambush on Income Tax, especially Baladhaneshwar who made a steal and a beautiful layup driving between the IT team in the paint.With a 4 point deficit, the IT had scored 16 pts in the first qtr.
IT’s big man, Rikin did his big man moves and blocked shots but the lead was still in Indian Bank’s side. At the end of 2nd qtr, IB was 35 and IT had 24. With a small magic or motivation at the halftime, IT regained control with Sivabalan adding three back to back 2 pts. All the men of IT proved strong in the third qtr and it did turn the way Income Tax had wanted and at the end it was 46- 49 with Indian Bank on just a 3 point lead.
The game’s brightest star emerged in the 4th qtr and he was Hariram of Indian Bank. Jeeva,Siva Balan and Bopanna of Income Tax played the game smartly but they were answered by Hariram singlehandedly. Sivabalan of IT made a huge 3 but Hariram dropped a 3 of his own and it was a one man assault in the 4th qtr.With the score by Puvaneshwaran of Indian Bank, their victory was sealed and the IB won the match scoring 74 while IT scored 64.
In the women’s match between Southern Railways (SR) and South Central Railways (SCR), Southern Railways clearly exhibited control over the scores in the first half with Raja Priya Darshini and Adhirai. Raja Priya Dharshini, with her long reach, made a chase down block on a Southern Central Railways at the 2nd Qtr. She went inside the paint and drew a foul and connected the basket and no.10 followed with a 3pt. Another huge 3pt came from Anitha Paul and she grabbed a nice rebound.SCR weren’t struggling but at the end of 1st half they were 24 pts while Southern Railways had 31 pts. Judging that they could be shaken heavily if they don’t come up with a plan, Southern Central Railways tightened their defence in the 2nd half with Divya Palanivel taking charge of lining the scores for the team and Anbarasi adding points of her own.
Raja Priya Dharshini of SR answered with an assemblage of her own. She made a huge rebound and with her size advantage, she towered over the defense and gave SR the needed push. With the 3rd qtr ending with Southern Railways scoring 45 and S.Central Railways scoring 35, the game was in a huge favor of Southern Railways. However, things changed in the 4th qtr as SCR’ Divya Palanivel changed the pace of the game and with a under 2 mins remaining the score was tied at 47-47.
Darshini was not giving up and with Sonia Joy, Raja Priya Dharshini ‘s support SR regained the lead and its score was 57 points and after a good fight SCR touched 55 but SR took home the CRI Trophy.
The winners received the respective trophies and cash awards from Balaji Saravanan, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Law and Order), Coimbatore.