Chennai: India has created a new history in FIBA Asia Cup Basketball qualifiers after 27 years, defeating Kazakhstan 88-69 and climbed to second place in Group E here on Monday night.
With this win, India brightened their Asia Cup qualification.
Tamil Nadu player Pranav scored 32 points and played an important role in the team's victory.
The Indian team cheered up the fans who were disappointed by the defeat in the first match against Qatar.
In the first quarter, the Kazakhstan team played well and started to accumulate points quickly. Only Amjyot Singh and Sahaij Sekhon scored a 3-pointer each in the Indian team. Kazakhstan also only made two 3-pointers, but if led 18-9 at halftime.
In the second half of the quarter, Indian players started to accumulate 3 points. Kanwar Sandhu made three 3-pointers to increase the team's score. Along with him, captain and Tamil Nadu player Hafeez and Amjyot added three more 3-pointers for the Indian team to score 28 points.
With this, the Indian team took a lead of 37-33 points at the end of the first half.The dominance of the Indian team was more in the second quarter. Previously Against the Qatar team, the Indian players were struggling to take rebounds and were able to end the opponent's counts by taking more rebounds in this match.
On one hand Amjoth, Hafeez, Bala, Kanwar focused on getting 3 points while Pranav, the promising star of Indian team, focused on getting 2 points. As a result, the Indian team continued to lead 63-51 at the end of the third quarter.
Even in the last quarter of the game, Kazakhstan team could not stop India's momentum and our players showed seriousness in accumulating points. Tamil Nadu's star player Pranav scored 32 points and led the team to victory.
In the end, the Indian team registered a great victory with the score of 88-69. The Indian team took revenge against the Kazakhstan team for the defeat they had suffered against the Qatar team in the first match.
Group E of the Asia Cup Qualifiers, the Indian team not only tasted their first victory but also moved up to the second spot with 244 points from four matches.
With this, the Indian team has brightened its chances to participate in the next year's Asia Cup.
The Indian team has two more matches left. Next year, they will play against Iran in the match on February 21 and Qatar in the match February 24.