Asian Netball Championships:

Sri Lanka in runaway 110/8 win over Japan

Yasaratne GAMAGE

An exciting display of netball from Sri Lankan lasses further secured their top position in Pool A when they defeated Japan by 110- 8 in the first match on day for of the Asian Netball Championships 2012 at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium yesterday.

Height advantage

As for the other teams who played against Sri Lanka it was not easy for the Japanese to challenge their opponents both in tactical playing and techniques. It was the same headache for the Japanese as for the other teams , the fact that Sri Lanka possess the tallest netball shooter in the world.

The home team scored at a rate of 27 goals per quarter while Japan scored 8 in the whole game , a goal rate of 2 in a quarter which summarizes the story of all what happened yesterday between the two teams.

Different approach

Sri Lanka started with Thisala shooting the ball in the first minute while Tharjini who came into action in the third quarter, was enjoying at the bench. Thisala ( 25 ) and goal attacker Sashika ( 4 ) made it 29 while Japanese were yet to score at the end of first quarter.

In the second quarter Thisala scored 22 out of the 23 chances while Sashika added five goals. Japan scored their first goal in the 12th minute of the second quarter when their goal shooter I A George rose to the net. Sri Lanka led 56-2.

Japan got much movement in the third quarter and they got five attempts of which two were successful. The hosts with five replacements on the other hand continued their passion for goals, this time with captain Tharjini who netted 28 goals. Semini scored two of her opportunities. The two goals for the Japanese came from S Nakatani who scored nine goals against India the other day.

Never give up

During the final quarter Japan was getting much energy and moved quickly. They also positioned themselves and stayed away from the opponents. This made them to get seven opportunities. S Kanbe and Nakatani made use of five of them. But nothing could worry Tharjini who went on to score another 24 goals. By the final whistle it was 110-8 in favour of the home team.

During the game we saw Japan's coach Eiko Tago's face whenever her lasses made a score. The smile of a sigh was an expression hinted how they estimated Sri Lanka. After the game Eiko hugged the players overjoyed with 8 goals they shot against Sri Lanka.

Unity is strength

The game was absolutely a team work from Sri Lankan lasses. The passes were electric, the positioned well, understood opponent's intentions well. Specially grabbing the ball going out of the court to their possession was excellent from Sri Lankan players. Yesterday we saw , center and wing attacker of the home team uses a mixture of passes which deceived the opponents well.

Food for thought

Semini Alwis likes distance shooting which is of great use in the presence of a good defense provided her target is accurate. Dammika Wickramasinghe who replaced goal defender Chaturangi ,got into difficulty during the third quarter and was treated by Dr Lal Ekanayake.

Dhammika returned to the court and started hobbling around which should not have happened. Since there were many to be replaced there was no reason for her to continue playing with a pain in the leg.

Forgot their inborn ability

If not the Japanese did not try to use long and overhead passes like the Sri Lankans did they would have been more successful.

Japanese are known for their quick and swift movements, but yesterday it seemed that they forgot their inborn ability.

They should have used more short and bounce passes which could have turned the game much competitive for the opponents.

Now that the hosts are at the top and looking forward to winning the championship it is the duty of local fans to flock together to the Sugathadasa Indoor tomorrow at 11 am to see another exciting hour of netball from the local lasses.