New Delhi, 26 Feb: India put up a strong show against 27th-ranked Iran but went down 53-86 in their Group E match of the ongoing FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, here on Monday.
\nThe 81st-ranked India made an impressive start with forward Pranav Prince being accurate with his interceptions as the hosts took a two-point lead in the first minute.
\nIran players took their time to find rhythm but once they did, they used their superior physicality to get past the Indian defence.
\nHowever, India managed to remain in the game, trailing by only three points at the end of the opening quarter.
\nIndia tried to counter the visitors with fast-paced runs, countering over 40 per cent of their two-pointers. Yet, they struggled on the rebounds and trailed 32-42 at half-time.
\nPrince was the top scorer for the India with 11 points, while Arvind Kumar Muthu Krishnan and Muin Bek Hafeez contributed with nine points each.
\nFor Iran, Behnam Yakhchali collected 15 points whereas Mohammad Amini and Salar Monji earned 14 points each.
\nIndia head coach Veselin Matic said, “India has talent; we need more experience. We have some gap now before the next qualifier in November, and the national team will be participating in club championship and multiple other exposure trips. We are confident that we can give a winning performance.”
\nIndia, who lost their opening contest against Kazakhstan 50-63, are currently placed at the bottom of the group table.
\nThe next opportunity for India to turn around their fortunes will be against Qatar in November.
\nThe qualifiers are scheduled to run until February 2025. The top two teams from the six groups will make it to the main tournament in Saudi Arabia next year, while the third-placed teams in each group would play the final qualifier round. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 26 Feb: India put up a strong show against 27th-ranked Iran but went down 53-86 in their Group E match of the ongoing FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, here on Monday. The 81st-ranked India made an impressive start with forward Pranav Prince being accurate with his interceptions as the hosts took a two-point lead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-235614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}