E-Paper
U-13 district championship: Man-to-man, full-court gives Aniruddha club win over Loyola’s
Aniruddha club managed to keep its nos in front with some impressive defence and fast-break points. Their players looked sharper and hungrier and that is what saw them win comfortably by a`.
Aniruddha club’s A team deployed the old-school man-to-man tactical method in order to triumph over Loyola High School 46-25, in the semi-finals of 9th late Rajabhau Chitale Memorial under-13 district championship held at the Deccan Gymkhana basketball courts on Thursday.
Riding a wave of good fortune, many expected Aniruddha’s fairytale run to be snapped against one of the tournament’s favourites.
The team has been in existence for two years and after a pre-quater-final finish in 2018, it has now defied the odds to make it to the final.
Aniruddha club managed to keep its nos in front with some impressive defence and fast-break points. Their players looked sharper and hungrier and that is what saw them win comfortably by a 21-point margin.
Another noteworthy tactical tweak was seen late in the second quarter, when Aniruddha head coach Anirudh Pole asked his guard Chiraj Birajdar to man-mark Arnav Angarkar.
This saw Angarkar restricted to only a few shots and he also wasn’t given the room to pick out passes at ease.
With the defence taken care of, Manit Agarwal was given the license to play a free role and he put in an impressive performance inside the paint, scoring a colossal 32 points in the three quarters he was on the court.
The underdogs will be hoping that their run continues one final time when they square off against the Sanjay Sawant basketball academy, who beat the tournament hosts Deccan Gymkhana 58-45, in a thrilling semifinal game.
Player of the match
Chiraj Birajdar – Man-marking isn’t as prevalent in basketball as it was in the past, but if executed perfectly, it comes off as a masterstroke. Birajdar knew that by playing this role, it was unlikely that he would score any points and that is precisely what happened. However, what he brought to his side on the defensive front was that he completely nullified the threat of the opposition’s most potent attacking player Arnav Angarkar. This often saw the contest turn into a 4 v 4 and Loyola’s just could not match up to Aniruddha’s high intensity.