The Sri Lanka Youth Netball team, led by another nearly flawless performance by shooter Mellony Wijesinghe, registered their 3rd straight win of the Asian Youth Netball Championship, beating Thailand 85-29 at the Kashima Sports Center, Japan.
Sri Lanka came into the game with a perfect record, having defeated South Korea and Nepal in their two opening fixtures. Having scored 95 and a whopping 136 goals in the previous two games, Sri Lanka were slower off the blocks against the Thais, managing just 15 goals in the 1st quarter to the 7 scored by Thailand.
As expected, it was Wijesinghe who did the majority of the scoring – making 14 of her 19 attempts at goal. Dewna Randini added 1 goal to the tally in the 1st quarter as the scores read 15-7.
Sri Lanka picked up the pace in the 2nd quarter, as the game drifted away from Thailand with Wijesinghe getting into her stride. She was successful on 24 attempts at goal, with a success rate of above 90%. By half-time, Sri Lanka were well on their way to their 3rd successive win, leading 39 -14.
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The third and 4th quarters were much of the same, as Sri Lanka dominated from the onset, scoring at will. The defense too did their job perfectly, with intercepts and turnovers enabling Wijesinghe and co. to put the game beyond the tiring Thais.
After a somewhat disappointing 1st quarter by their standards, where they had a success rate of just 75%, Sri Lanka turned the screws in the latter half of the game, with a 96% success rate in the 2nd half, making 46 of the 48 shots taken.
Wijesinghe shone once again, doing the bulk of the scoring, including a fourth quarter tally of 23/23 as Sri Lanka ran away winners 85-29. The quarter scores read 15-7, 24-7, 23-7 & 23-8.With the win, Sri Lanka secured their spot in the semifinal, despite having a game to spare in the 1st round. They will face the other unbeaten team in group B and arch rivals Singapore tomorrow (4th) at the same venue.
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