KOCHI (Kerala), Thursday, 20th October 2022: Guard P Baladhashwar, a former member of India’s 2017 FIBA Asia Cup team, starred yet again for Chennai Heat, as the INBL 5x5 Season 1 Round 1 games concluded its penultimate day.
The 23-year-old 5ft 11’’ captain led the charge with 31 points and 11 rebounds, as Chennai beat Bengaluru Kings 79-66. Bengaluru actually led at halftime by three points, 32-29, but a dominant 28-9 third quarter turned the tide permanently in favour of Chennai. Bengaluru’s two starting guards Abhishek Gowda and Anil Kumar were guilty of turning the ball a whopping 18 times between them, with Gowda alone accounting for 11 giveaways. That said, Kings’s 22-year-old power forward Pratyanshu Tomar continued to impress with his consistency, this time with a 17 points – 16 rebounds double double. Meanwhile, Tomar’s frontcourt partner, captain Arvind Arumugam, was contained to a measly 4 points.
In other results, Chandigarh Warriors maintained their trend of alternating wins and losses, with an 81-67 victory over the only other north Indian team in the competition, Delhi Dribblers.
The third and final game of the day between Kochi Tigers and Mumbai Titans saw major pendulum shifts in three out of four quarters, before the undefeated Tigers sealed their fourth consecutive win.
INBL 5x5 Season 1 Round 1 {Kochi} Results (19-10-22)
1. Chandigarh Warriors (Palpreet Singh Brar 20 pts & 15 reb, Kanwar Gurbaz Singh Sandhu 23 pts, Sahil 15 pts, Amarendra Nayak 10 pts) bt Delhi Dribblers (Gaurav Chandel 17 pts & 10 reb, Mahipal Singh 18 pts, Rishabh Mathur 12 pts & 10 reb, Piyush Meena 11 pts) 81-67 [19-20, 20-20, 19-14, 23-13]
2. Chennai Heat (P Baladhaneshwar 31 pts & 11 reb, Lokeshwaran 17 pts & 10 reb, Muin Bek Hafeez 10 pts) bt Bengaluru Kings (Pratyanshu Tomar 17 pts & 16 reb, Anil Kumar B K 20 pts, Abhishek Gowda C R 11 pts) 79-66 [16-21, 13-11, 28-9, 22-25]
3. Kochi Tigers (Lalrina Renthlei 18 pts, Jishnu G Nair 17 pts, Sarath A S 13 reb, Sejin Mathew 12 pts) bt Mumbai Titans (Sahaj R Patel 13 pts & 12 reb) 70-57 [7-23, 26-9, 12-18, 25-7]