LUDHIANA: The Indian senior men's basketball team beat Thailand to progress to the semifinals of the 21st Best Mart 360°
Super Kung Sheung Cup
International
Basketball Invitation Championship
that is underway in Hong Kong, on Thursday afternoon.
The 2-0 Indian team has topped preliminary Group 3 and is through to the knockouts. Tomorrow, is a rest day and at the time of filing this report, India's semifinal opponent and match timing is still to be confirmed.
India has now made a case for itself as one of the tournament's strongest teams, as it cruised past Thailand 86-65.
It was yet another superlative performance by captain
Vishesh Bhriguvanshi
, whose 29 points were spread out over the four quarters, and centre
Amritpal Singh who had 18. Shooting guard
Pratham Singh came into form and hit double digits with 11 points.
But it was India's defensive work in the third period that swung the game decisively in its favour. That frame saw Thailand score only 7 points as against India's 27, to effectively seal its fate. The other three periods were evenly split between the sides. India won the first quarter, Thailand the second, while the fourth was a tie.
India (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 29, Amritpal Singh 18, Pratham Singh 11) bt Thailand (Nakorn Jaisanuk 17, Moses Morgan 13) 86-65 [20-12, 13-20, 27-7, 26-26]
Payal Dhawan is a senior correspondent with the Times of India Ne...
Read MorePayal Dhawan is a senior correspondent with the Times of India Newspaper, based in Ludhiana, Punjab since 2013. She covers crime, police administration, prisons, vigilance bureau and NIA. She also writes on weapon culture in Punjab, various gangs and jail inmates besides other issues.
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