By Dhammika Ratnaweera reporting from Singapore.
Sri Lanka came out with the best of their performances so far in the Asian Netball Championship in Singapore, when they beat the hosts Singapore 69-50 to be crowned as Asia’s netball champions for the next two years. Having entered the final, they will now go as Asia’s number one team to the next years World Cup tournament in England.
This is Sri Lanka’s fifth Asian title, which is the most by any country with Singapore 3, defending champions Malaysia twice and Hong Kong once.
Sri Lanka won the tile in 1989, 1997, 2001 and 2009 before today, and had finished runners up 1985, 2012, 2014 and 2016.
Sri Lanka’s Tarjini Sivalingam was the main scorer for Sri Lanka with a 93 percent success rate while captain Chathurangi Jayasuriya leading well to follow their team plan and strategy to come out better in a very sportingly hostile atmospehere in Singapore.
Speaking after the success, captain Jayasuriya said that they were determined to from the beginning to take the title home and thanked their coach Thilaka Jinadasa attributing to team’s success for her committment. “I thank all the players and the supporters who made it possible, but without our coach, this would not have been possible” said a jubilant Jayasuriya.
Sri Lanka and Singapre were 16 all the first quarter (16-16) and then took a 6 points lead in the second (16-10) to finish at 32-26. In the third quarter (18-12) too Sri Lanka extended their lead by another 6 points and finished the match and the final quarter (19-12) by 69 points to 50.
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