7th Savio Cup, SFS vs ONGC II. Murphy’s Law in effect.

Murphy’s law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Case in point: You’re undefeated in a tournament, having trounced your opposition by an average margin of victory of 20.5 points. You then take an inconsequential game off on the day before the finals against Shooting for Success, the team which you had beaten by 25 points a few days ago.

Things that can go wrong:- the match is the first one of the tournament to be shown on TV, giving people a wrong perception of your play.- entire match isn’t shown due to technical glitch. So people miss the part where your center didn’t even jump for the tip off and the first half where your opponent built up a sizable lead on non-existent defense.- telecast finally begins when your opponent has a big lead and you’re just going through the motions waiting for the final buzzer.

All these aren’t shown because the satellite van supposed to be covering the game went off to cover the marathon happening on the next day and a backup satellite van had to be arranged for.

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ONGC had already qualified for the finals. Two matches were scheduled on the day before the finals, one between ONGC and SFS and the other between IOB and Punjab, the winner of which would go on to meet ONGC in the finals.

But the other finalist won’t have the luxury of saving their legs. They are also playing on the same day, albeit in a deciding match.

That’s the advantage of winning. ONGC had been undefeated in this tournament. They had earned the luxury of taking a day off, as they are already in the finals and don’t need to strain themselves to win an inconsequential match, unlike the players in the next match between IOB and Punjab which was a decider for both teams.

Trideep Rai and Murali Krishna sat out the entire game. The players on court weren’t giving it their all either.

To reiterate, ONGC had won their games in the Savio Cup by an average margin of victory of 20.5 points.

When Greg Popovich sits down Duncan, Ginobili and Parker on the last regular season game he does so to prevent fatigue and avoid the risk of injury right before the playoff games begin. Fans may bemoan losing out an opportunity to watch quality play, but its being done to ensure better quality in the near future in a game of importance. That’s what ONGC was doing. They were just going through the motions, taking it easy to preserve their legs for the finals. They had already proven themselves against SFS once in this tournament, defeating them by 25 points. And also against every other team unfortunate enough to come their way, bashing one and all with an average margin of victory of 20.5 points.

The point is not that SFS would lose to ONGC every time around. Only that this time, they won only because their opponent didn’t play to their fullest. This match was their only loss in the tournament.

By the way, ONGC won the Savio Cup.

Name || Jersey # || Height|| Dinesh Kumar 4 5?9 Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 5 6?4 Vinay Dabas 6 6?1 S Sridhar 7 6?2 Anoop M 8 6?6 Desraj 9 6?3 Yadwinder Singh 10 6?6 Suresh Kumar 11 6?3 Trideep Rai 12 6?3 Riyazuddin 13 6?2 Muralikrishana 14 6?8 Shabber Ahmad 15 6?7

There may be a rematch of the two teams, at the 1st Chennai Invitational Basketball Tournament which started today and will go on till 24 January. And if the match is of any consequence, based on what I’ve seen of ONGC’s play recently, they are going to win that game soundly and go on to win the tournament as well.

If neither happens, I’ll change my author’s dp to a baboon’s backside for the rest of the month of January