By Pathum Sri Wijeratne reporting from OCBC Arena, Singapore
Sri Lanka took off their campaign at the 11th Asian Netball Championship with a bang, by reaching a record 137-5 win against a hapless Chinese Taipei side in the opening day at the OCBC Arena in Singapore yesterday.
The scoreline will go down as a record in the ongoing 11th Asian Netball Championship, as the highest overall total recorded by a team in the history of the competition. Sri Lanka made a strong approach in the first quarter by scoring 37 points, while conceding just two points to the opponents.
The Lankan lasses doubled their power in the second quarter and went on to score 37 more points, but they were strong enough not to concede a single point. At halftime the scores were 74-2 in obvious favour of Sri Lanka.
Chinese Taipei managed to add another point to their total of two while Sri Lanka accelerated by adding 32 points in the third quarter, taking the match scores to 106-3. The Lankan lasses maintained their strong flow even in the fourth quarter by adding further 31 runs as Chinese Taipei gathered two more points. The match ended with a score of 137-5 and stood out as the game of the day among the four that were played yesterday.
Sri Lanka coach Thilaka Jinadasa made use of the opportunity to make quick changes, by rotating and replacing players during all four quarters. Her approach to the competition from the onset, gives hope to Sri Lanka in regaining the Asian title yet again.
Of the four games that were played yesterday, Sri Lanka became the only side to reach three-figure scores. The curtain raiser game of the competition was played between hosts Singapore and Brunei and the home team romped to an easy 68-19 win with set scores of 19-4, 20-4, 15-6 and 14-5. Malaysia beat Japan 88-13 with set scores of 22-5, 26-1, 23-3 and 17-4. Two Sri Lankans — Helanka Weerasekara and Thilini Perera — were part of the Japanese team, making it a rare occasion in netball.
Today Sri Lanka will face India, with three other games on the cards. Malaysia is set to meet Maldives, Thailand takes on Hong Kong and hosts Singapore will face Pakistan in the remaining games. Sri Lanka will enjoy a rest day tomorrow before the competition reaches the second round on Tuesday. The semi-finals, playoffs and finals will be played over the next weekend at the same venue, before the competition comes to a conclusion on September 9.
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