Sri Lanka rout India 85/29

Yasaratne GAMAGE

Defending champions Sri Lanka overcame India by 85-29 with home team captain Tharjini Sivalingam shooting 53 goals in their second game in the 8th Asian Netball Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday. Shooter, Thisala Algama contributed with 20 goals while Sashika Samarasinghe and Semini Alwis also made valuable contributions to make it a worthy team work to defeat their opponents.

Rupinder of India playing goal attacker position collected 20 goals while goal shooter H Kaur added nine goals to her team.

Sri Lanka opened up scoring in the first minute when Tharjini raised her right hand while Indian Rupinder also ticked the board for India a few seconds later. Then for another six minutes Goal Attacker Shashika and Tharjini with a good combination finished it in the net after the other players passed the ball forward. Now Indians unable to fight with the height of Tharjini also missed two scoring opportunities due to aimless shooting.

Centre and co captain Gayathri Lankathilaka and Wing Attack Maneesha Fernando was so quick in the first quarter which enable Tharjini to get some easy scoring chances. Sri Lanka led the first quarter 23-6.

Indians started the second quarter with a different approach by passing the ball more quickly and tried high passes while the hosts continued with the same strategy, attempting to get advantage of the height. It was good for India and they started to score consecutive goals while the opponents kept on scoring and also missed a couple of chances including inaccurate passing.

Kaur and Rupinder seemed challenging and made use of their tries with less mistakes and also they were passing the ball quicker while they kept away from the opponents. This made them to score a few quick goals. But during the halfway in the second quarter Indians got a break after which Sri Lankans started the firework again. Tharjini again kept on scoring while Indian remained the same for at least six minutes. Sri Lanka ended the second quarter 62-24.

The third quarter saw Indians getting quicker and using variety in ball passing. They got the maximum use of bounce passes to deceive opponents on many occasion. How ever Sri Lankans too got in the style and moved quickly to position themselves. Indians scored 10 goals in the third quarter and Sri Lanka netted four more.

In the fourth quarter it was time for younger players to gain experience with five replacements in the Sri Lankan team. Semini Alwis, Dammika Wikkramasinghe, Vishaka Jayasooriya and Thisala Algama came in and played with much energy. Thisala despite a few hiccups started scoring soon. Indians on the other hand found it difficult to defend Thisala and Semini who collected goals in quick sessions. India scored four goals in the last quarter three of which came from Rupinder. Sri Lanka netted 23 with Thisala contributing 20 goals.

Both sides played well and it was Sri Lankan's height that upset Indians. But they used good tactics instead and played quicker , specially in the second and third quarters, used their feet well to position themselves to keep away from the opponents. Sri Lanka defended well and used lob passes quite a lot which enable to score and keep the opponents out of reach of the Sri Lankan net. Sri Lanka will meet Nepal at 11am today at the same venue in their third match of the tournament.

Earlier in the morning Singapore overcame Maldives by a huge margin, 82-11. Singapore the runners up last year registered their first victory over Malaysia on the first day and continued the same style to defeat Maldives.

The Maldivian netballers despite of their attacking play against Brunei on the other day stepped back ward at the hands of Singapore. The first quarter ended with Singapore scoring 18 goals while Maldives collected only one goal. Maldivians were seen halted while their opponents continued to dash the board in the second quarter. Singapore finished 22.

There was not much difference in the third and the final quarters except for a few goals to the Maldives’ credit while Singaporean reached 82 at the final whistle.

Cassendra Soh shot 33 goals and Yu Mei Ling gave 27goals to the final total.

Japan overcame Nepal by 52-27 yesterday afternoon in another match at the same venue yesterday. The first quarter ended in Japan's favour at 13-7. Nepal became closer in the second quarter and finished one goal behind their opponents. Japan 10, Nepal 9.

It was all Japanese third quarter where they collected another 15 goals while Nepal scored 4. Japan shot 14 goals in the last quarter while Nepal only scored half of it. Japanese player N. Sae scored 31 out of 36 attempts while Nepalese S. Thapa scored 16 goals out of 12 attempts to finish the game by 52-27.

Brunei almost played a one side game against Pakistan in the last match of the second day where they overcame the latter by 91- 13. There was no resistance from Pakistan who only scored 3, 5, 2 and 3 goals in the four quarters respectively. Brunei kept on scoring double figures in each quarter. They finished the first quarter with 21 goals and the second 25 goals. In the third and final quarter Brunei collected another 45 five goals to finish it 91-13. Brunei is coached by Sri Lankan Thilaka Jinadasa the victory is even exciting for them as this is their first international outing.