New Delhi, July 09: S Robinson and Desraj stole the show as India thrashed Bagladesh 109-53 in the opening match of the middle-Asia zone qualifying round for the 22nd Asian Basketball Championship (ABC) here tonight. After Kyrgyzstan pulled out of the tournament in the last minute, the format was changed to a round-robin league with the top two teams qualifying for the ABC which will be held in China in September.
The Indians, who were a few notches above their opponents, led from start to finish and led 43-31 at the half- time. Such was their all round superiority that they won by a big margin despite playing in a very relaxed manner with Desraj and Robinson scoring 21 points each.
Robinson also excelled in collecting the rebounds and won five offensive and eight defensive rebounds. Skipper Gagnesh Kumar was close behind with 20 points and also excelled on the rebound count with five and one respectively.
Trideep Rai opened India's account with a superb three pointer and Kadam quickly made it 5-0 before Bangladesh opened their account.
Bangladesh reduced the lead to 7-8 but India quickly pulled away to 17-9 with baskets from Murli Krishna, Gopinath and Gagnesh.
With around four minutes to go in the first quarter, Bangladesh called for the first time out. On the restart they scored in succession to claw back and at the end of the first quarter the score read 23-18 in India's favour.
Bureau Report