Sri Lanka defeated Grenada 51-48 after an intense battle to save face avoiding a 20th and last place finish in a disappointing 8th Netball World Youth Cup 2017 campaign in Gaborone, Botswana.Sri Lanka after being humiliated 125-15 by the defending champions New Zealand, faced Samoa in their final group match. Sri Lanka fared better against Samoa, who eventually finished 11th, though losing 73-49.
New Zealand trounce Sri Lanka in NWYC
Defending champions New Zealand demolished Sri Lanka 125-15 in a pool A match in …
At the end of the first quarter Samoa led 20-11 and at half time with the scores reading 35-22 Sri Lanka kept Samoa in check. However, Samoa ran away with the 3rd quarter scoring 23 points to Sri Lanka’s 9 (58-31). Samoa added a further 15 points and Sri Lanka managed 18 points to finish the game 73-49.
The defeat to Samoa which left Sri Lanka at the bottom of their group, meant that they had to play for the 17th-20th places against the two Asian rivals Singapore, Malaysia and Grenada.
Sri Lanka were hopeful of a win against Singapore but once again ended up battered with a 63-36 loss like they suffered a couple of months back at the Asian Youth Netball Championship.
Sri Lanka started off well and at one point led 10-5 but with 6 unanswered points Singapore stormed back and finished the 1st quarter 15-12. With Sri Lanka’s star player Kaveena Rajapaksha getting injured mid-way through the 2nd quarter, Singapore pressed on the advantage to go into half time with the scores reading 28-18.
Singapore went ruthless in the 3rd quarter scoring 21 points while Sri Lanka could only manage 10 (49-28). Singapore went on cruise mode in the 4th quarter scoring 14 points and Sri Lanka scored 8.
Sri Lanka’s only hope to get into the 17th place play-off was to then defeat Malaysia, but even after a much-improved performance they lost 57-53 to the reigning Asian Youth Netball Champions.
Once again, as they did against Singapore, Sri Lanka took off the block in lightening fashion racing to a 3-13 lead and finished the 1st quarter 8-18. They extended it to 11-23 but Malaysia fought back in the latter stages of the 2nd quarter outscoring the Lankans 13-7 as it ended 24-30 at half time.
Sri Lanka got off to a better start in the 3rd quarter at 29-37 but Malaysia once again with a furious comeback outscoring the opposition 12-4 equalized 41-41 at the end of the 3rd quarter (17-11). With momentum on their side Malaysia took a 48-43 lead early in the 4th quarter and never looked back. Even though Sri Lanka reduced the deficit to 2 at 52-50, Malaysia kept their composure to win 57-53 which sent Sri Lanka to play for the 19th place against Grenada.
Results
1st to 8th Place
9th to 16th Place
17th to 20th Place
