Sri Lanka’s hopes of becoming number one in Asian Netball was shattered as they succumbed to defeat in their Group C World Cup Netball opener against the Asian champions Singapore by 43 to 56 goals at the Netball Central Stadium in Sydney.
Sri Lanka lasses led by Semini Alwis the daughter of the teams coach Deepthi Alwis, started off well during the first 12 minutes of the first quarter and led 8 goals to 2 at that stage. And the team and the supporters thought that Sri Lanka would go for a big win.
But the game completely from there onwards as the Sri Lankans made several mistakes and gave away 6 cosecutive goals to Singapore and scores were level at 8 all and then both teams fought hard and when the first qaurter came to end the score was 12 all.
In the second qaurter the Singaporeans played a great game and enjoyed a lead of 7 goals. At the stroke of the second quarter the score was 18 – 11 (30 -23)
The third quarter saw the Lankans playing better game plan and they had secured the third quarter by 11 goals to 9. At one stage Lankans levelled the scores 34 each but Singapore fought back to gain the led and the scores reac 39 to 34.
The last quarter was a one sided affair and Singapore won it easily by 17 to 9 and final score was 56 goals to 43 in favour of Singapore.
Thisala Algama the goal shooter had pocketed 34 goals out of 39 attempts and skipper and goal attacker Semini Alwis hat 9 out of 11 attempts.
For Singapore Charmaine Soh the goal shooter goaled 39 out of 55 attempts Goal attacker Huifen Chen scored 17 out of 25 which was not satisfying the coach Juth Aitken who thaught the winning margin should have been much more.
She said if they had goaled all their attempts the winning margin would have been more.
Sri Lankan coach Deepthi Alwis said that inexperience of most of the players caused her the game. Five of the Sri Lankans were playing their maiden World Cup this time.
