Tamil Nadu stun Punjab to enter last eight of 3x3 basketball championship

The seasoned campaigners from Tamil Nadu shocked Punjab (21-10) to enter into the quarterfinals of the first 3×3 national basketball championship for senior men and women, which began at the Thayagraj Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, on Wednesday.

While the Tamil Nadu men registered the fastest victory in the championship, Uttrakhand, the winners of the regular senior national championship at Ludhiana, registered three consecutive victories to enter the quarterfinals in style. Despite being humbled by Tamil Nadu, the runners-up of the Ludhiana nationals, Punjab secured a quarterfinal berth with two victories.

In the women’s section, the experienced Indian Railways outfit finished off all their three league games within the stipulated time of 10 minutes to make their intentions clear in the first three-a-side nationals. Similarly, Maharashtra and hosts Delhi along with Chhattisgarh women made it to the quarterfinals without losing much sweat with an unbeaten record in the league stage of the tourney.

Updated results (Day 1)

Men: Gujarat (Indra Vijay 7) bt J&K (Ranbir Singh 13) 20-18; Kerala (Manoj R 10) bt HP21-5; AP (Sujith Reddy 7) bt Tripura (Madhab Sharma 6) 21-11; Karnataka (Sriniwas Nayak 7, Sanjay Raj 7) bt Delhi (Vinay 7) 21-7; Chandigarh (Vinay 13) bt Haryana (Pradeep 7) 20-13; Chhattisgarh (Ajay Pratap Singh 8) bt UP (Upender Kumar 4) 17-13; TN (CV Dinesh 8) bt MP 21-8; Punjab (Amratpal Singh 12) bt Bihar 21-5; Rajasthan (Kamran Khan 10) bt Maharashtra (Amit Kumar 10) 21-18; UP (Santosh Singh 14) bt Chandigarh (Abhit Jhanji 10) 19-14; TN (Prathan Singh 10) bt Bihar Sahabuddin Khan 5) 22-9; Punjab (Amritpal Singh 11) bt MP 18-5; Uttrakhand (Vishesh Briguvanshi 12) bt Railways (Prakash Mishra 7) 21-16; Karnataka (Rajesh Uppar 8) bt AP (ST Muralikrishnan 10) 21-14; Chhattisgarh (Sharwan Kumar 9) bt Haryana (Pradeep Punia 13) 21-18; Delhi (Narender Kumar 8) bt Tripura 21-8;

Women: Maharashtra (Aishwarya Shetty 8) bt Bihar (Mridula James 4) 20-8; Punjab (Kiranjeet Kaur 12) bt AP G Satya 6) 19-8; Tamil Nadu (Raja Priya 6) bt Uttrakhand (Shraddharai 5) 13-5; Railways (P Anitha -9) bt Kerala (Stephy Nixon 2) 21-3; HP (Meenakshi 9) bt J&K (Ankta Singh 2); Delhi (Prashanti Singh 6) bt MP (Sapna Dohaliya 4) 19-7; Haryana (Pinki 7) bt J&K 19-2; Chhattisgarh (Poonam Chaturvedi 14) bt HP Naina 8) 21-11

Knockout line-up (on April 11)

Women: Railways vs Rajasthan (9 am); Punjab vs Chhattisgarh (10 am); Delhi vs Tamil Nadu (11 am); Haryana vs Maharashtra (12 pm)

Men: Delhi vs Punjab (9.30 am); Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh (10.30 am); Railways vs Chhattisgarh (11.30 am); Tamil Nadu vs J&K (12.30 pm)