Qatar meet defending champions China in the title-tilt on the morrow. China brushed aside Chinese Taipei 95-73 in the other semifinal.

The 200 cm tall centre Daudi Bashir wreaked havoc with Japan's fast and tidy game. Japan had their chances too but their scoring percentage was woefully poor on the day and Bashir faithfully picked the rebounds off the board. In contrast, Bashir covered up for the shots missed by his teammates too, and got points in the bargain.

Japan's point-guard Hidenori Kashiwa was indisposed and could not take the field. This upset the careful rhythm he had cultivated with his schoolmate Fumio Murayama who missed as many as eight long range efforts and also deprived YutaTabuse of a very useful hand up front. Qatar used all this to further their own total. Between them Hashem Zaldan and Bashir took Qatar ahead 19-8 by the 12th minute and took the break with a 46-34 lead. After resumption, with tight man-to-man marking, Japan came within three points at 63-66. Hereabouts Murayama went for three long rangers but missed all of them while Bakar Ahkuwari struck a combination with Ali Saleh to see Qatar set up a repeat final.

Five times winners, China were well served by their centre Li Diangliang who shot in ten baskets, converted seven free throws and picked up three defensive rebounds for a total of 27 points. Ye Penfei got one three pointer and China raced to a 17-9 lead. When Yao Ming came off the bench, the comparatively shorter Chinese Taipei were left standing. Ming collected the ball over his opponents' heads and scored. All the pressure defence tactics Chinese Taipei had successfuly used came to nought.

INDIA FINISH 11TH: Hosts India overcame Kuwait 94-77 to takethe 11th position, an improvement of two places from the previous edition. The Indians used the screen and fake to effect and showed up the deficiencies of the straight up-and-down game of Kuwait. The home team had a 53-43 lead by lemon time but lacked the stamina to sustain the tempo. India however, put their heads together and put up a tight defence to build a big lead and romp home.

Mahipal Singh scored four three pointers in his 27 points while Ranjeet Singh contributed 24 points and S Robinson 22. For Kuwait Saqer totalled 33 points including one long-ranger while Taher scored 16 points.

South Korea, who finished fourth in the previous edition, settled for ninth place in the champioship, thrashing Hong Kong 103-64 (half time: 54-27). Kim Dong Woo put in 26 points (5 three point shots) for Korea with Jung Sun Kyu (16:2x3) giving him good support. For Hong Kong, Yeung Tsz Kwong (15) and Wong Chi Wai (12) were the main scorers.

Lebanon, who had upset defending champions China in the preliminary leaguestage beat Pakistan 73-45 to take the 13th spot while Pakistan and Bangaldesh took the 14th and 15th positions respectively.