Sri Lanka go down fighting against Wales

Sri Lanka pushed world rank 9 Wales but eventually lost 68-56 in their 3^rd and final Pool C game in the Netball World Cup 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa.

It was a close game at the beginning of the 1^st quarter with Wales taking a 3-1 lead, but Sri Lanka equalized at 6-6 with Thishala Algama scoring back-to-back goals. At one time it was 10-9 but towards the end of the quarter Wales went on two 3-0 runs and closed the quarter 17-11.

Sri Lanka started off the 2^nd quarter 2-4 run closing the gap to 19-15. But there on Wales went 11-7 to go into halftime 30-22 (13-11), with an 8-goal lead. Sri Lanka’s general play turnovers gave the advantage to the opposition. Around the 7^th minute, Dulangi Wannithilake was subbed out due to an injury.

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Head Coach Thilaka Jinadasa brought in Tharjini Sivalingam to replace Algama and Wannithilake also returned for the 3^rd quarter. The move seemed to have worked as Sri Lanka brought the gap down to just 5 goals at 41-36 in the 10^th minute. But once again Wales closed the quarter on a high (9-4) to build a 10-goal lead at 50-40 (18-20).

Within 4 minutes in the last quarter Shanika Perera replaced Gayani Dissanayake and Malmi Hettiarachchi replaced Bhashini De Silva. Wales had a great start to the quarter (12-4) making it 62-44 and extending the lead to 18 goals. Sri Lanka did fight back thereafter with a 6-12 run it was not enough as the quarter ended 68-56 (18-16).

Sri Lanka shot 56/63 at 88.9% while Wales had 68/76 at 89.5%. Sri Lanka had 27 turnovers to Wales’ 18 which proved to be a vital statistic.

Tharjini Sivalingam scored 33/35 at 94.3% while Thishala Algama scored 16/21 at 76.2% while Semini Alwis shot 100% from 7/7 for Sri Lanka. For Wales, the 6’ 5’’ Georgia Rowe was almost perfect with 49/50 at 98% and Philipa Yarranton had 10/16 at 62.5%

Scorers

Wales – Georgia Rowe 49/50, Philipa Yarranton 10/16, Sarie Watkins 7/8 & Zoe Matthewman 2/2

Sri Lanka – Tharjini Sivalingam 33/35, Thishala Algama 16/21 & Semini Alwis 7/7

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