Sri Lankan netballers in third successive win by beating Singapore - 62/44

NETBALL: The Sri Lanka netball team made a clean sweep as they cruised to their third successive victory overcoming Singapore by 62 goals to 44 goals in their final league match of the fifth Asian Junior netball championships worked off at the Sree Kanteerva indoor stadium in Bangalore yesterday.

Sri Lanka's victory had a great amount of significance as they went on to head group 'B' having collected the maximum points which meant that they will be up against the weak Thailand side in the first semifinal scheduled for today (Saturday) at the same venue.

The Sri Lankan team played well within themselves and also had the credit of topping the sixty goal mark for the third successive occasion. In addition they had the consolation of winning the match by a convincing margin of 18 goals which was a fantastic effort indeed.

The only major concern for Sri Lanka came during the second quarter where both teams collected the identical score of 14 goals each.

Sri Lanka of course got off to another flying start and took a psychological advantage by building up a commanding 16-11 lead at the completion of the first quarter. Despite their setback in the second quarter Sri Lanka still enjoyed a good lead of 30-25.

They accelerated the game in the third quarter and went on to collected a further 19 goals while conceding just ten goals to their opponents.

The Sri Lanka team cosponsored by Eva, then delivered the knock-out blow early in the fourth and final quarter as they completely outplayed the Singapore side scoring a total of 13 goals against their opponents' nine goals. Sri Lanka's matchwinner and goal attack Gishanthi Jayakody who contributed a massive 54 goals out of 61 attempts came in for high praise from the coach Thilaka Jinadasa.

Jinadasa, former Sri Lanka vice captain said that her key player in the side Jayakody is enjoying her game fully and the manner she is performing is really outstanding. Jinadasa said that Jayakody is performing her role with a minimum effort and hoped that she will continue with the good work during the next two outings.

Sri Lanka's goal shoot Iresha Koralagedera however was off colour and managed to score only eight goals out of 15 attempts. Skipper and goal defence Shereen Nugera, wing defence Preseilla Koch, centre W. A. Sujani, goal keep Thilini Batagoda and wing attack Sheruni Peiris all put up a fine performance to complete their task quite convincingly.

Singapore goal attack and vice captain Chen Huifen scored 22 goals from 32 attempts while goal shoot Veronica Clark also contributed 22 goals from 32 attempts. Bangalore, India, Friday