2nd Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament 2015: Semifinalists Confirmed
Karnataka's Yashas Ramesh (in white) shows his aggressive intent against Income Tax. Bengaluru, 9th October 2015: In a decisive day final day of league matches, Income Tax-Chennai, ONGC Dehradun (Pool A), hosts Vijaya Bank and Kerala State Electricity Board (Pool B) are through to the semifinals of the 2nd Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament 2015. The Championship, featuring leading Indian men’s club teams, is being organised by Vijaya Bank under the auspices of Basketball Federation of India and Karnataka State Basketball Association, at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru.
KSEB's top scorer Albin Baby in action. In the first match of the day, the seasoned Income Tax-Chennai pros taught the young Karnataka lads a lesson or two in ball movement, offensive rebounding and pressure defense, en route to their convincing 79-59 win. Karnataka though should be credited for keeping it almost neck and neck in the first half. With their perfect 3-0 record, Income Tax, Chennai has ended the league stages on top of Pool A. They will face KSEB in the first semifinals tomorrow (10th Oct 2015). The second match was a crucial encounter between Pool B teams KSEB and South Central Railway, Hyderabad. A win for Railway could have led to a potential three way tie at the second spot. But KSEB made sure no such complication arose, with a hard fought 73-56 win. Shooting guard Albin Baby found his scoring touch with a combination of jumpshots and layups to lead all scorers with 28 points. South Central Railways’ Naveen was the only player for his side in double digits, as SCR ended winless after their three league games.
ONGC centre Murali Krishna about to dunk against Punjab. In many ways the third match was a repeat of a first, as a dominant team in hosts Vijaya Bank faced off against a middling one i.e. Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. Right from the get go, the Bankers led and continued building up a lead. At half-time the score was 49-37, which included a couple of two handed dunks by India power forward Arvind Arumugam. The final score of 90-67 has meant that hosts Vijaya Bank have cruised to a perfect 3-0 record and into the semifinals as Pool B toppers. In the process, ICF-Chennai, which needed to upset the bankers to have a chance of progressing to the knockouts, have fallen just short.
Vijaya Bank centre Arvind Arumugam with a strong two handed dunk against ICF. In the final match of the day, ONGC, Dehradun faced unexpected challenges against the athletic but relatively inexperienced Punjab side. Punjab yet again relied on Bijender Kumar’s aggression and Harmandeep Singh’s grace and agility. But the combination of former and current international stars in the ONGC side meant that the 71-57 result in favour of the Oilers was always going to be a formality. ONGC Dehradun’s 2-1 league record has put them in second place in Pool A, and they will now face hosts Vijaya Bank in the second semifinals tomorrow, a game that promises to be a high quality affair.
RESULTS (9/10/2015)
Pool A: Income Tax, Chennai (Rikin Pethani 23, Bopanna 17, Hakeem 12) bt Karnataka State (Chethan 15, Ganesh 13) 79-59 [20-13, 15-10, 20-12, 24-24]; ONGC Dehradun (Riyazuddin 14, Trideep Rai 13, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 13) bt Punjab (R Sharma 16, Rajveer Singh 10) 71-57 [18-6, 9-18, 27-12, 17-21] Pool B: Kerala State Electricity Board (Albin Baby 28, Ashwin Xavier 14, Tony K Mathew 11) bt South Central Railway (Naveen 17, Nihal Yadav 8) 73-56 [24-17, 16-9, 22-15, 11-15]; Vijaya Bank (Rajesh Uppar 22, Anil Kumar 20, Arvind Arumugam 18) bt Integral Coach Factory, Chennai (Praveen Kumar 21, C Seenivasan 14, K Mukunth 11) 90-67 [30-18, 19-19, 28-11, 13-19] Late evening Results from 8/10/2015 Pool B: Integral Coach Factory, Chennai (Praveen K 32, Mukunth 16) bt South Central Railway (David Boon 12, Sujith Reddy 11) 93-67 [24-16, 27-23, 21-12, 21-26]
About the Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament
The tournament is being held at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru from 7th to 11th October 2015, under the auspices of the Basketball Federation of India and the Karnataka State Basketball Association. Matches will be played every evening from 5:00 pm onwards in a league cum knockout basis. The tournament is being held in the memory of the Late Shri Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty, a longstanding former Chairman, who was instrumental in the growth of the bank through the 60s and 70s. There are 8 teams in the fray in this tournament, divided into two Pools of 4 teams each. This edition of the tournament will feature some of the nation’s top men’s club sides such as last year’s runners up and reigning National Games champion Oil and National Gas Corporation (ONGC)-Dehradun, Punjab, Integral Coach Factory (ICF)-Chennai, Income Tax-Chennai, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), South Central Railway-Secunderabad, hosts Vijaya Bank and Karnataka State team. The top two teams from each Pool qualifying to the knockout rounds. The inaugural edition of the tournament was held last year in Malleshwaram, with Indian Overseas Bank (IOB)-Chennai, ONGC, Vijaya Bank and Karnataka State finishing as the top four teams respectively.
FIXTURES OF THE 2ND MULKI SUNDER RAM SHETTY ALL INDIA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT, BENGALURU
7th to 11th October 2015
Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru
Pool A
Pool B
ONGC, DEHRADUN VIJAYA BANK, Bengaluru PUNJAB INTEGRAL COACH FACTORY (ICF), Chennai INCOME TAX, Chennai SOUTH CENTRAL RAILWAY, Hyderabad KARNATAKA STATE KERALA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD (KSEB), Thiruvananthapuram
SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING MATCHES 10.10.2015 Semifinal Matches from 5:00 pm onwards
Income Tax, Chennai vs KSEB
ONGC Dehradun vs Vijaya Bank
11.10.2015 Matches from 4:30 pm onwards
3rd Place Match
Finals
About Vijaya Bank & Its Basketball Programme
Vijaya Bank, was founded on 23rd October 1931 by late Shri A B Shetty and other enterprising farmers in Mangalore, Karnataka. The objective of the founders was essentially to promote banking habit, thrift and entrepreneurship among the farming community of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka State. The bank became a scheduled bank in 1958. Vijaya Bank steadily grew into a large All India bank, with nine smaller banks merging with it during the 1963-68. The credit for this merger as well as growth goes to late Shri M. Sunder Ram Shetty, who was then the Chief Executive of the bank. The bank was nationalised on 15th April 1980. The bank has built a network of 1512 branches, 48 Extension Counters and 1528 ATMs, that span all 28 states and 4 union territories in the country. Each branch provides effective and efficient services and significantly contributes to the growth of the individual, and the nation. Notably, Vijaya Bank is the only recruiter of basketball talent in the state of Karnataka, and has contributed 10 international players to the country, starting with Olympian Gurumurthy Dileep, who joined the bank way back in 1977. Other international players honed by the bank are former India captain BS Gautham (1986), A Rajkumar (1988), S Stalin (1993), G Murali Mohan (1995), Roshan Thankachan (1999), Sanjay Raj (2002), Arvind Arumugam and Rajesh Uppar (both in 2012). Including these international stars, in all, the bank has recruited 25 national level players, who have represented their bank and the state of Karnataka with great pride and gusto.