India caused a major upset at the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Asia Challenge in Tehran on Tuesday, beating China, Asia's top-ranked team, 70-64 in a second round Group E fixture.
The win boosted India's chances of making the quarterfinals of the event. Amritpal Singh was the standout player from India, scoring 23 points along with 14 rebounds, while Vishesh Bhriguvanshi led the assists chart for either side with six.
India had lost 2 straight games coming into this game whereas China had a 3-0 record and looked to keep it that way as it led 27-18 halfway through the second quarter. But India came back strongly to score 17 points in 10 minutes to lead 31-29 at half-time.
Within the opening 3 minutes of the third quarter captain Amritpal Singh scored 8 points to put serious pressure on China. India kept their nerve and opened a six-point gap at the end of the third quarter, to lead 51-45 as the match headed into the final quarter.
By this time two of its big three of Amjyot Singh and Amritpal were on four fouls each, but the coach decided to keep them playing. With both playing a seemingly passive game to avoid getting fouled out, India's bench stepped up to hold on to the lead throughout the quarter.
The last quarter was the most tightly contested, with both teams registering 19 points each. The highlight of the quarter was when Amritpal stripped his Chinese centre off the ball, and threw down a dunk to get India back up by 6 pts with 7:50 left in the game. With five minutes left and the score reading 60-51 India's bench made sure they closed out the game to rack up a famous victory.
"Overall it was a team effort and they played as well as they did at the practice sessions at NITTE Campus. We worked on defence and this gave my boys more confidence on offense. Our strategy was to pressure the ball man and not let the first receiver receive the pass easily," Head Coach Sat Prakash Yadav said after the game.
This is 53rd-ranked India's second win over China in two years. In July 2014 they had beaten China 65-58 in the FIBA Asia Cup group stages in Wuhan. India and China had last played each other in October 2015 at the Asian Championships quarter-final playoffs; China had won 104-58.
India are now fourth in the six-team Group E, with six points from four matches. Earlier in the tournament, India had beaten the Philippines 91-83, before losing 90-66 to Chinese Taipei. They began their second round with a 121-65 defeat at the hands of Jordan on Monday.
But with their points from the first round carried forward, India should now be able to qualify for the quarterfinals if they beat Kazakhstan in their final league match on Wednesday.
The top five nations at the FIBA Asia Challenge will earn an extra berth for their respective sub-confederations for the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup -- a tournament that will host teams from both Asia and Oceania for the first time, and also serve as a qualifier for the FIBA World Cup to be hosted by China in 2019.