Jeppiaar Basketball  Chennai, 13 October 2011

Southern Railway eves once again proved their supremacy and annexed the women’s crown in the 3^rd Jeppiaar All India Invitation Basketball tournament which was being conducted at J.J. Indoor Stadium here on Thursday evening.

The Jeppiaar basketball tourney is an annual feature in Chennai city organised by the Jeppiaar Institue of Technology, Sriperumpudur.

Southern Railways were the champions in the inaugural edition of the above tourney two years ago.  The Chennai team continued its unbeaten run in this tournament highlighted with a trophy triumph in the evening’s grand finale.

The young players from Bilaspur-based South East Central railway showed some enthusiasm and scored valuable points in the first few minutes of the play to lead in the first quarter.  But the much experienced Southern Railway stars regain control from the second quarter onwards and went on to win the match in a big margin of victory (89-40).

Southern Railway’s Kokila awarded a TVS Scooty Pep as ‘Most Valuable Player’ of the tournament.

Earlier Bhilai Steel Plant beat Central Railway (Mumbai) in the play-off for third place.  Southern Railway was awarded Mrs. Marcela ever-rolling trophy and Rs. 80,000 cash prize for the win.  Runners-up South East Central Railway and second runner-up Bhilai Steel Plant also received cash purse of Rs.50,000 and Rs.30,000 respectively.

Defending champion Indian Army went down to IOB in semis

In what is considered as a shocking defeat, defending champion Indian Army lost a chance to enter the men’s final in this year’s tournament.   With their star players Sambaji Khadam and Jairam Jat were on the injured list, the Army team could not expect to do better than this at this juncture.

On the other hand, Indian Overseas Bank, which used to be in the semi-finals in the previous two years but failed to go beyond on both the occasions have made it a memorable evening as the city team poised to enter tomorrow’s final with a 74-58 verdict.

Army started well in the beginning and was leading the game through the first quarter (18-12).  However the bank players shot up in the next and jumped to 36-28 at the end of the half-time.

Army players Gopal Ram and Dalip Kumar continue to raid the rival camp and trying to take back the command in the third quarter.  But the bank-men responded equally through Vineeth Revi Mathew and Praveen Kumar and increased the margin at the last stages of the first semi-final which favoured the IOB 74-58.

Praveen Kumar of IOB adjudged as the “player of the match” and received a Laptop computer for his effort.

(Note: The second semi-final between ONGC and Sathyabama University is currently ON and the report will follow)

Results:

Women’s FINAL:

Southern Railway, Chennai 89 (Anitha 31, Kokila 18, Geethu Anna Jose 11) bt. South East Central Railway, Bilaspur 40 (Anju 12)  HT: 41-20

Play-off for Third Place:

Bhilai Steel Plant 60 (Saranjeet Kaur 20, Poonam Chaturvedi 16) bt. Central Railway, Mumbai 49 (A. Greeshma 15, M. Beena 14) HT: 44-28, Player of the Match: Saranjeet Kaur (BSP);

Men’s Semi-final:

Indian Overseas Bank 74 (Vineeth Revi Mathew 20, Pratam Singh 18, Abhilekh Paul 15) bt. Indian Army 58 (Dalip Kumar 11, Gopal Ram 11) HT: 36-28, Player of the Match: Praveen Kumar (IOB);