Singapore crushes Sri Lanka 56-43

By Hishan Welmilla in Sydney, Australia

Sri Lanka’s hopes of getting sweet revenge from Singapore were shattered as they were beaten comprehensively by 56 goals to 43 here yesterday at the Netball World Cup pool C match in Sydney Australia.

It was a tough battle right from the beginning. The Sri Lankans came for the match leaving behind the bitter experience of the loss they suffered at the Asian Netball Championships in 2014 and gave a better show in the first quarter by levelling the score 12-12 at the end.

The opponents came strong in the second quarter and had a lead of clear 7 goals to read the score 30-23. Lankans bounced back in the third quarter adding 11 goals to the total score and Singaporeans only manage to score 9 goals as Lankans left no room to consolidate.

But it was not sufficient to take the lead at the end of the third quarter and Singapore had 5-goal lead and the score board read 39-35 favouring them.

Singapore capitalised on the lead they got in the third quarter and outclassed the Lankans in all departments to score a massive 17 goals to take the match away from Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka only got 9 goals in the fourth quarter and final score was 56 -43. This was the final opportunity for the Lankan lasses to regain their lost Asian pride at the Asian Netball Championship last year when they were beaten by Singapore 59-41 in the finals.

Sri Lankans were pretty much unlucky as the few scoring chances went begging and on the other hand they were also somewhat lucky as Singapore missed many scoring opportunities which came their way. If all those were netted the score margin would have been higher.

Sri Lanka’s goal shooter Thisala Algama performed well to score 34 goals while Captain Semini Alwis netted 9 goals. 

“We had a strong case today and were very much in confidence to record a win against Singapore. But we lost our way halfway. The performance of the team should be commendable as we did not miss many goals scoring opportunities (43/50),” said Sri Lankan Coach Deepthi Alwis

Goal shooter Charmain Soh was the highest scorer for Singapore with 39 goals repeating her devastating performance at the Asian Netball Championship in 2014 against Sri Lanka. Goal attack scored 17 goals giving Charmain the support she required to overcome the Lankan resistance

Sri Lankans will meet Malawi today (8) and the match will get underway at 7:20 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. Sri Lanka time). They expect to meet South Africa on 10 August as their last Pool C match in the preliminary round.

The 14th Edition of the Netball World Cup 2015 got underway with a spectacular opening ceremony on Friday but competition started earlier in the day with the match between Fiji and Wales in Pool D. Wales’s managed to record a 59-53 thrilling win. 

Jamaica outclassed Samoa 80-44 in a Poll B match while Malawi queens creating a biggest upset in the day one by beating strong South Arica in an exciting encounter by 58-51 goals in another Pool C match. They expect to meet Sri Lanka today.

In a Pool D match between Uganda and Zambia Uganda secured 52-29 goal win over their opponents.

England confronted their arch rivals Scotland in a Poll B match and England beat Scotland them comprehensively by 60 goals to 19 and New Zealand Silver Ferns met Barbados before the opening ceremony in a Pool A match and registered 73-28 goal victory.

Allphones Arena was almost in its capacity crowd of 18,700 when the hosts Australian Diamonds got in to the courts for this first time in the tournament for their match against Trinidad and Tobago and Diamonds were too much for the ‘Calypso Girls’.