Bangladesh inched closer to securing the Citycell South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) 3-on-3 Basketball Championship after winning their all three matches against Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal yesterday.
The two-day meet got underway at the Dhanmondi Basketball Gymnasium yesterday afternoon with the match between Bangladesh and Bhutan. The hosts got off to a flyer by earning a comfortable 22-9 points victory. Bangladesh captain Md Rasheduzzaman and Mithun Biswas caged eight points each while Shamsuzzaman Khan Soyab complemented well with his four points for the winning side.
In their second game, the home side faced Sri Lanka, the other favorite of the tournament. Bangladesh didn’t have to toil hard as they comfortably humbled the Lankans 20-9. Mithun scored 11 points and Rashed caged seven points for Bangladesh while Don Roshan Randima scored four for Sri Lanka.
Nepal, however, put up a good show against Bangladesh who were playing their third match of the day. The match ended 20-18 in Bangladesh’s favor but it could have been the other way round too.
“Strength and shooting in this format of the game is important. Height also matters. Our team is in good shape. We went to China two years ago to play 3-on-3 Asian Beach Games where we finished fourth out of 16 teams. So we have confidence that we would perform well in any 3-on-3 tournament,” said Bangladesh captain Rashed after the game against Sri Lanka.
India, the sub-continent powerhouse, couldn’t participate in the tournament due to visa complicacies which is the reason why the competition has now become a round robin one. “If India had taken part in this tournament, we would have fought well with them. Nepal and Sri Lanka are also good teams but our team is better and I think we will be the champions,” added Rashed from Bnagladesh Navy.
Bangladesh will play their last game against Maldives at 2.30pm today and a win would ensure championship for the hosts. Rashed is confident of seeing off Maldives and win the silverware.
Meanwhile, in the day’s other matches, Sri Lanka earned a hard-fought 17-15 point victory over Nepal while Maldives narrowly edged past Bhutan 14-12 and Nepal outplayed Maldives by 18-11 points.