Sri Lanka completed yet another comprehensive win at the Asian Netball Championships 2022, when they beat hosts Singapore 67-49 at the OCBC arena earlier today.
Having beaten Malaysia just yesterday, Sri Lanka came into this game with a chance to go to the top of the table and they ended up doing so with ease.
Singapore have been Sri Lanka’s main competitor at the Asian level and the two teams have battled it out many a times over the last few years. Sri Lanka seems to have gained an edge over their Asian counterparts in the recent past, having comfortably defeated them at the World Cup in 2019 as well, the last time the two teams met.
The first quarter started off with both teams going hard, Singapore briefly took the lead before Sri Lanka clawed their way back. The lead exchanged hands in the first quarter, with Singapore doing their utmost to stay with Sri Lanka, but the latter still went into the break with a lead of 4 goals – 15-11.
Sri Lanka really turned on the heat in the 2nd quarter scoring 21 goals and there was no coming back for the hosts, who trailed in every quarter to follow, 21-15, 16-12 & 15-11.
Losing talismanic Goal Attack Charmaine Soh to injury earlier in the tourney was a major blow to Singapore, as they went down to Sri Lanka by 16 goals.
For Sri Lanka, Tharjini Sivalingam did the bulk of the scoring, but the midcourt and defensive work from skipper Gayanjali Amarawansa, Chathurangi Jayasooriya and Gayani Dissanayake cannot be overlooked.
Sri Lanka will face Hong Kong in their final group stage game tomorrow at 2.30pm Sri Lankan time.
