Sri Lanka’s dismal effort continued as they were beaten 59 goals to 27 by Scotland in the Pool H qualifying round of the Netball World Cup played at Allphones Area in Sydney Olympic Park on Wednesday.
This was the fifth meeting between Sri Lanka and Scotland with the Scottish leading the head to head encounter 3-1 and an opportunity for Scotland to gain momentum for the second phase of the tournament and improve on their world ranking of 11.
The game started as a tightly fought contest with connections working well for Sri Lanka with goal attack Semini Alwis feeding the ball to shooter Thishala Algama without hesitation. Yet to get a win on the board in their NWC2015 campaign, Sri Lanka showed improvement from the side that took the court in Day 1, particularly their defensive trio of Gayani Dissanayake, Viraji Pethigoda and Sureka Gamage providing turnovers for their team. Scotland had some very impressive play in transition with strong drives by Samantha Murphy in attack and led 14-7 at the first break.
Sri Lankan coach Deepthi Alwis brought on Thilin Waththegedara at centre, Gayanjali Amarawansa in wing attack and Hasitha Mendis in goal shooter, while Scotland introduced Fiona Moore-McGrath at wing attack.
Though both nations showed some impressive play, Scotland took the lead by 25 goals to 11 at half time.
Chathurangi Jayasooriya was brought onto wing defence in the second half for Sri Lanka while Scotland made wholesale changes. But again Scotland had the better of the islander and took the third quarter by 15 to 9 and had overhaul tally of 40-20.
Algama provided a useful target for Sri Lanka in the final quarter but it was not enough to stop the Scottish drive and speed in transition, with the Scottish team making full use of their bench testing different combinations, eventually running out 59-27 winners.
