Sri Lanka takes on Singapore in finals today
Sri Lanka made it to the finals of the 9th Mission Foods Asian Netball Championships with a hard fought 57-42 win over Hong Kong while Singapore also had had a tough game on their hands to down Malaysia 46-39 in the semi-finals worked off at the OCBC Arena, Singapore Sports Hub yesterday.
Can the Sri Lankan lasses reclaim the Asian Championship after five years is the big question at the moment, after the Islanders were edged out by a point by Singapore in the 2012 final held in Colombo. - File pic
Perhaps the Sinhala song ‘Adare Hithanaya Dekkama’ played before the game on the PA system at the OCBC Arena egged Sri Lanka onwards for this close victory.
Sri Lanka will now clash with Singapore in the finals to be worked off at the same venue today starting at 4 pm SGT. This will be followed by the closing ceremony of this ten nation competition worked off for seven days from September 7 onwards.
Sri Lanka was not all that impressive against Hong Kong. The scores swung pendulum wise and kept the crowd on the edge of their seats. The scores drew level at 24-24, 25-25 and with Goal Shoot Tharjini Shivalingam finding her form and the other players fighting hard to gain possession of the ball from the fast moving Hong Kong forwards, they inched ahead. But the Hong Kong players never took ‘no’ for an answer and kept on hounding the Sri Lankan girls until the last whistle sounded and the Sri Lankan supporters at the stadium heaved a sigh of relief as Sri Lanka won at 57-42.
Earlier in the day Singapore too were made to fight hard and managed to down Malaysia 46-39.
It all points to a close battle in the finals today and if Sri Lanka manages to keep the tall Tharjini Shivalingam well supported with the ball Sri Lanka should pull this game in their favour and make their way into the World Cup Competition to be held in Sydney, Australia in 2015.
The Sri Lanka line-up for yesterday’s game consisted of: Shashikala Samarasinghe, Gayani Dissanayake, Tharjini Shivalingam, Chaturangi Jayasooriya, Kumarine Silva, Mareesha Fernando and Deepika Abeykoon.
In an earlier game Chinese Taipei had an easy passage defeating Japan 54-24.
Past winners of the competition are: 2012 – Singapore; 2009 – Sri Lanka; 2005 – Singapore; 2001 – Sri Lanka; 1993 – Hong Kong’ 1998 – Sri Lanka’ 1985 – Malaysia.