Reigning title holders Sri Lanka started the 8th Asian Netball Championship in style at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo, thrashing Hong Kong by a massive margin of 81-38 yesterday.Six-foot-nine inch tall Tharjani Sivalingam who emerged as the netball queen in the 7th edition of the competition in Singapore, made the bulk of scoring when [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Unstoppable Tharjini shoots Lanka to victory

By Naushad Amit
8th Asian Netball championships in Colombo
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Sri Lanka co-skipper Tharjini Sivalingam who scored 75 goals yesterday against Hong Kong will be a player embattled by other opponents in the 8th Asian Netball Championships. – Pic by Amila Gamage

Reigning title holders Sri Lanka started the 8th Asian Netball Championship in style at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo, thrashing Hong Kong by a massive margin of 81-38 yesterday.Six-foot-nine inch tall Tharjani Sivalingam who emerged as the netball queen in the 7th edition of the competition in Singapore, made the bulk of scoring when she netted 75 goals out of the total tally for the winners. Sivalingam who made 78 scoring attepts was unstoppable as the Hong Kong lasses managed to defend her only on three occasions. The remaining six goals were added by Sashikala Samarasinghe as Sri Lanka rode mainly on the gallant efforts of the two lofty lasses in scoring while the local defenders too were efficient in their job.

The overall teamwork of the Sri Lankan netballers were evidently clear during the first quarter as they managed to score 26 goals and gave the Hong Kong lasses just six openings to score. But there was a bit of a weariness shown by the Sri Lankans in the second quarter as Hong Kong played effectively to score more goals than the first phase. Nevertheless Sri Lanka led the session by 17-12 extending their overall lead to 43-18.

The third quarter solely belonged to the Sri Lankans who went on to make 22 goals against 8 scored by Hong Kong who trailed shoddily at 65-26. Despite a definite win heading towards the Sri Lankan camp, Hong Kong showed some grit during the last quarter to dish out their best effort overall in the game. However the victors still claimed the set by 16-12 to succeed their initial hurdle in their attempt to defend their Asian netball title. Sri Lanka will take on India today at 12.45 pm in their second Group A match before meeting rookies Japan on Tuesday.

In the second match of the day Singapore recorded a rousing win against Malaysia at 38-34 from Group B. Malaysia managed to hold to the lead after three quarters against the defending runners-up of the competition, but they only managed to claim the first quarter by 11-5. Singapore however won the remaining three quarters respectively at 9-8, 11-9 and 13-6 but still trailed by 28-25 after the third quarter. Singapore sealed the game from the marginal lead gained during the fourth quarter. Singaporean Y.M Ling scored 18 goals while M. Diana scored 18 for Malaysia during the encounter.

India beat new entrants Japan by a massive 64-17 in a Group A match. India dominated the four quarters winning each of them at 17-6, 19-5, 19-6 and by an inspiring 29-8 respectively. R Kaur scored 40 goals for India while for Japan S. Nakatani scored 9 goals.Meanwhile in the final match of the day Maldives and Brunei settled to a thrilling 26-all draw from the Group B. Maldives won the first quarter by scoring close 8-7 win while Brunei bounced back to gain the lead at 15-13 after winning the second quarter by 8-5. Maldives won the third quarter by 7-6 as Brunei still managed to hang on to an overall lead of 21-20. But both teams settled to a draw after Maldives claimed the fourth quarter at 6-5. Maldivian E.A. Sattar scored 18 goals while S.B. Jaul succeeded 8 times in 11 attempts.




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