28th Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament: ONGC 72, Indian Air Force 52 (Men’s Semi Final 1)

The air was noticeably heavy as both teams warmed up for their semi-final clash, and you could sense that the players were preparing for an intense battle. Three new cameras had been set up for this evening. DD Sports was covering this event live. An elevated platform above the scorer’s table added to the cauldron-like atmosphere. The players could feel that they were being watched by thousands across the country. Those following the tournament would inevitably root for the underdogs in this game – IAF – who had been compensating for lack of size throughout these games with pure energy and heart. IAF warmed up with board tapping drills and layups. ONGC preferred pre-game dunks and half-court shots (courtesy their guard Mohit Bhandari) to get their juices flowing.

MOMENTUM SHIFTS

Air Force led 16-15 at the end of the first quarter mainly through Joginder and Narender’s outside and mid-range shooting. From the second quarter onwards, the ONGC defence clamped down, whether on the perimeter or in the post. They allowed only 26 points in the paint and dictated the tempo of the game for the next three quarters. ONGC were up 38-28 at halftime, 59-38 at the end of the third quarter, and 72-52 by the final whistle.

THUMBS UP

Just like Kobe prefers guarding the best player on the opposition, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi took on the responsibility of shutting down the talented guard Narender Grewal of Air Force. And what a job Vishesh did! Narender scored a tournament low 15 points, on 6 of 20 shooting (30%). He was also just 1 of 6 from beyond the three-point line.

ONGC’s team defence that shut down IAF’s offensive options. Joginder Sharma of IAF is a fearless guard currently part of the Indian national side. He has been exposed to much tougher opponents at the international level. But Yadwinder’s block on him at the top of the key was so psychologically damning that Joginder stopped attempting to drive into the centre of the ‘D’, virtually handing the game to ONGC. Joginder’s ability to dribble into the heart of the opposition defence and kick the ball out for the open jumper was IAF’s only real offense in a slowed down half-court situation. Their other mainstay was running the break through the explosive Narender Grewal. IAF had only 2 fast break points in the entire game! You can run the break in 3 ways: (1) off broken plays, where you secure the quick defensive rebound and pass it to the outlet; (2) through steals; (3) off a long pass after the opposition scores. ONGC didn’t allow IAF an advantage on any of these three fronts. As a team, ONGC shot a solid 45% from the field. The rebounding numbers were split equally between both sides (38-38). Air Force could manage just a solitary steal. What this meant was that IAF had to play at a slower tempo than they would have liked. Since they couldn’t get fast break opportunities and Joginder couldn’t drive in towards the basket, their only possible saviour was the outside shot. But apart from Joginder, who was 4 of 6 from the beyond the arc, the rest of the team was a combined 1 of 16! With all their offensive options closed down, IAF were held to a tournament low 52 points.

THUMBS DOWN

Riyazuddin, ONGC. The former India captain had a forgettable outing after starting the game for his side. He was 0 of 5 from the field, turned the ball over twice and got blocked once. He was substituted in the second half by Sridhar S.

KEY PERFORMERS

Murali Krishna, ONGC Centre. If you had to pick out the one reason why ONGC won this game by the margin it did (20 pts), then that reason would be the 6ft 8 inch behemoth Murali Krishna. The 34-year-old former India Centre was the signature dominant big man, which is very rare to see but absolutely enthralling to watch. We were taken back to the late 90s and early 2000s when Shaquille O’ Neal of the Lakers used to dominate the opposition with his sheer brute physicality around the basket. The same was the case here. Murali Krishna was scary to simply look at, let alone guard. When a man like him decides he is going to take over the game, the only thing you can do is watch in dismay. Murali’s deflating influence on the opposition was much more than his stats suggest, which nonetheless were impressive. He had 15 rebounds, 6 of them on the offensive end. He scored 17 points. When fouled, he went to the line and made 7 out of his 10 freethrows. He also registered a huge block in the game.

Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, ONGC. Murali’s performance doesn’t mean that ONGC didn’t have its other star performers. The man with the bleached brown hair, slightly dopey eyes and toothy grin, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, topscored again, as he has done in all the earlier games in RMBT. He shot an unbelievable 81% from the field to score a substantial 27 points. It seemed as if he had pre-decided to only drive in or else shoot mid-range jumpers. He never settled for outside threes (0 of 1 from distance) despite being an excellent long range shooter. The thing about great players is that they have such tremendous confidence in the range of their abilities that they can actually mould the nature of the game instead of simply reacting to it. Watching Vishesh’s ramrod-like intent to only drive in and not shoot threes was akin to Sachin’s 241 runs against Australia, where he refused to play any shot on the offside. Apart from Vishesh, forward Yadwinder Singh too had a decent game with 17 points. However, quite a bit of his work was undone by his 7 turnovers.

QUOTES

“We had too many injuries on our team. So I had to put in a lot of effort. With my experience, I know when to fire. This is a knock out game, so I knew that I had to perform today. After the first quarter, I started switching out towards Joginder on the screen. This move was a success.”

- Murali Krishna, ONGC’s dominant centre, on his game heroics and also on their defence strategy against the in-form Joginder

“Jis speed se hum khelte hain, who speed aaj nahin aayi (We weren’t able to play at the speed we would have liked). Unke paas height advantage tha aur experienced players bhi the. Hamaara offence bahut jaldi khatam ho raha tha (They had the height advantage and the more experienced squad. Our offense was getting terminated too early and we weren’t able to create plays).”

- Joginder Sharma, the despondent IAF point guard after the game