It has been 1 month since the u-18 junior national championship was inaugurated in Puducherry.On this occasion,I have written a special article dedicated to the silver medal triumph of the Maharashtra girls u-18 team.This article may have come late but I sincerely apologize for the delay which has been caused due to various personal and professional reasons and which shouldn't be taken as an excuse.Moving forward,I hope that you like my work and I'd be grateful if you render your valuable inputs,suggestions or criticism by commenting in the comments section....!
INTRODUCTION: In the last article,I had mentioned how the Maharashtra u-18 girls team,consisting of 7 Pune girls,was all set to rock the u-18 nationals to be held in Puducherry.And when the tournament concluded,they made sure that they returned home with silverware,making up for the disappointing loss of the boys campaign.All it took was 1 year to turnaround the fortunes of a team which had won just 2 matches out of six in the previous edition of the tournament.But it can't be discounted that this time the team composition was more balanced with five international players in the mix.Nevertheless,a win is still a win but it's unfortunate for the players to fall on the final hurdle.One step more and these girls would have achieved something historic for the state.
INTRODUCTION: In the last article,I had mentioned how the Maharashtra u-18 girls team,consisting of 7 Pune girls,was all set to rock the u-18 nationals to be held in Puducherry.And when the tournament concluded,they made sure that they returned home with silverware,making up for the disappointing loss of the boys campaign.All it took was 1 year to turnaround the fortunes of a team which had won just 2 matches out of six in the previous edition of the tournament.But it can't be discounted that this time the team composition was more balanced with five international players in the mix.Nevertheless,a win is still a win but it's unfortunate for the players to fall on the final hurdle.One step more and these girls would have achieved something historic for the state.
THE CAMPAIGN:The campaign started on a confident note when Maharashtra beat Punjab by a good 20 points in the opening match of the group stage.However,the road to the finals wasn't all smooth and the team hit a major roadblock immediately when they faced last year's winners Kerala.Maharashtra trailed from minute 1 and eventually lost by a heavy 24 points.The team showed character and rose from the initial jitters to beat the inconsistent Karnataka side by a good 20 points to bring the campaign back on track.In the last match of the group stage,Maharashtra faced Uttar Pradesh and unleashed their fury on the opponents to beat them 81-47,thus entering the knock-outs with three wins in the group stages.
What followed next was sheer misery for Maharashtra's opponents.They literally destroyed Madhya Pradesh in the knock-out and the margin was something M.P. would like to forget.The final score read 78-38 which meant that Maharashtra had entered the semi-finals on the back of two superlative wins.It also meant that the team was two steps away from that historic gold.Standing in the way was Tamil Nadu,which was undefeated throughout the tournament.It was an encounter where one couldn't predict which way the match would go.Lead changed hands at the end of every quarter and in all 11 times in total.It became 45-45 at the end of the third quarter.Five minutes into the fourth,Maharashtra was down 51-47 and the odds were in favour of T.N. but a series of brilliant defensive plays and counter-attack on the run covered the deficit for Maharashtra and eventually they clinched the nail-biting thriller 57-55 to meet Chattisgarh in the finals.
Playing Chattisgarh was a psychological difficulty for various reasons.For once,they had beaten Kerala,the only team that Maharashtra lost to.Second,Chattisgarh was the only team that had scored over 100 points in a single match.But there was an interesting analogy as well.Both the finalists had lost one match previously.Chattisgarh had lost against Tamil Nadu whom Maharshtra defeated in the semi-finals while Maharashtra had lost against Kerala whom Chattisgarh defeated in the semi-finals.
The match started smoothly for Maharashtra and there wasn't much to choose between the two sides in the first quarter.However the next five minutes was where Maharashtra lost the plot scoring just a single basket and conceding 12 points.Chattisgarh managed to maintain that lead and by the end of the third,the lead grew to 18 points.Just when everyone had counted Maharashtra out of the contest,there was a late surge by the players scoring 15 points in the first five minutes of the fourth.However the deficit was still huge and in the end Chattisgarh grabbed the title 89-73.
THE ARCHITECTS:While some may think that I'm biased in favour of Pune players because of my constant praise on them and because of no mention of other players,I would like to clarify that such isn't the case.Being a true basketball fan and writer,I would see to it that due credit is given to the persons concerned.The starting five on all occasions were Pune players.The top seven scorers for Maharashtra were the seven Pune girls.Apart from these,Sarah Vora of Dahanu played a good hand for Maharashtra.
The top scorer for Maharashtra was Sneha Rajguru totalling a 100 points,followed by Sruthi Menon scoring 82 points and Krittika Divadkar who caged in with 72 points in the entire tournament.*Captain Shireen Limaye and Ishwari Pingle supported well scoring 55 and 45 points respectively.**Shireen and Sneha were instrumental in the rebounding department grabbing 75 and 63 rebounds respectively.Gouri Ahir and Namasvi Ajmera also chipped in with useful contributions.
(*The above statistic does not include Mah vs Karnataka game as it was not made available by the BFI.
**Same as above)
Another name one shouldn't forget is that of the coach Lalit Nahata,a man with tremendous experience and whose expertise and tactics led Maharashtra to the silver medal.Three of these seven have already played under him at the school level since childhood and the rest also are well acquainted with his style of coaching as they are Maharashtra regulars.(please click on "read more" to read the end-part of the article)
THE ARCHITECTS:While some may think that I'm biased in favour of Pune players because of my constant praise on them and because of no mention of other players,I would like to clarify that such isn't the case.Being a true basketball fan and writer,I would see to it that due credit is given to the persons concerned.The starting five on all occasions were Pune players.The top seven scorers for Maharashtra were the seven Pune girls.Apart from these,Sarah Vora of Dahanu played a good hand for Maharashtra.
The top scorer for Maharashtra was Sneha Rajguru totalling a 100 points,followed by Sruthi Menon scoring 82 points and Krittika Divadkar who caged in with 72 points in the entire tournament.*Captain Shireen Limaye and Ishwari Pingle supported well scoring 55 and 45 points respectively.**Shireen and Sneha were instrumental in the rebounding department grabbing 75 and 63 rebounds respectively.Gouri Ahir and Namasvi Ajmera also chipped in with useful contributions.
(*The above statistic does not include Mah vs Karnataka game as it was not made available by the BFI.
**Same as above)
Another name one shouldn't forget is that of the coach Lalit Nahata,a man with tremendous experience and whose expertise and tactics led Maharashtra to the silver medal.Three of these seven have already played under him at the school level since childhood and the rest also are well acquainted with his style of coaching as they are Maharashtra regulars.(please click on "read more" to read the end-part of the article)
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| THE SILVER -MEDALLIST MAHARASHTRA TEAM |
