It’s Friday, 23rd February 2018.
With pre-game warmups over, the starting five on the Indian men’s basketball team take the court in front of home fans at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru for a crucial game against Team Jordan. This was India’s third game in the pool phase in their quest to qualify for the 2019 FIBA World Cup. After losing their first two games in November - games in which they sorely missed their top players - India needed all the help and home crowd support they could muster if they intended to keep their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup alive.
As the players settled in their positions on the court, ready for the referee to toss the ball up and get the game going, all seemed well.
For India, however, it felt all wrong.