The Indian women’s basketball team has been elevated to Division A after beating Kazakhstan in a thrilling finale. (Source: Twitter)
The Indian women’s basketball team beat Kazakhstan 75-73 on Saturday to climb to Divison A of the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 taking place in Bengaluru. Basketball Federation of India (BFI) president K Govindaraj announced a cash prize of Rs 15,00,000 for the Indian squad, that has been undefeated in the tournament so far.
India have now been promoted to Division A for the next edition of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup. Kazakhstan had the lead with centre Nadezhda Kondrakova scoring consistently but India’s most experienced player Anitha Paul Durai took it upon herself to lead her side to Division A after clinching the Divison B title. Jeena Skaria also contributed 20 points to help her side win the crucial match at home. Shireen was aggressive on her drives to the basket, while guards Paul Durai and Raspreet created space to knock down their jumpers.
“All the hard work over the past 5 months paid off,” said India star Limaye after the thrilling victory.
Anitha acted as a confidence booster throughout the game. Skraia was all praise for Anitha and said in an interview to Bangalore Mirror after the match, “She’s so supportive of us. ‘Go Jeena, go shoot a basket’, she would mumble on court. She motivates not just me but everyone in the team. Her experience is always on show. Our coordination is great and it all happens on the spur of the moment”
“Our aim was to get to Division A because we finished fifth once and we want to be at that level again,” Skaria added. “We couldn’t perform well last time, but that’s behind us. It’s clicking for us now. The coach asked us to give our 100 per cent on the court. He asked us to play with our heart and we just did that.”
