The Indian men’s basketball team came up short against a high-flying Jordan who notched up a big 98-63 win against the home team in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers match at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.
Jordan also qualified for the basketball World Cup 2023 from Group E as Saudi Arabia lost to New Zealand 110-63 earlier in the day in the other Group E fixture.
India, with eight points from nine matches, are at the bottom of six-team Group E and out of contention. They will play world No. 71 Saudi Arabia at the same venue on Monday in what will be India’s final match of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers.
India, 83rd in the latest FIBA basketball rankings, were 16 points behind in the first quarter against world No. 34 Jordan and saw the margin grow to 42 points in the second quarter. The 35-point gap at the final buzzer was Jordan’s biggest win so far in the World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.
While Freddy Ibrahim was the most impressive player for Jordan on the court with 21 points and 13 assists, Arvind Kumar (19 points), Muin Bek Hafeez (14 points) and Piyush Meena (10 points) did the heavy lifting for India.
The Indian basketball team is yet to win a match in the FIBA World Cup 2023 qualifiers. India have never qualified for the main draw of the FIBA Basketball World Cup in the 18 editions held so far.
