After five consecutive losses, Sri Lanka is back to winning ways at Netball World Cup
The Asian Champions, Sri Lanka finally earned their first win at the ongoing Netball World Cup when they edge a strong Barbados outfit on Thursday in Cape Town, South Africa.
Coming into the match Sri Lanka was desperately looking for a win after 5 consecutive defeats while their opponents who have already secured their spot in the 13th/14th playoff looked to continue their domination in the tournament.
However coming into the match, Barbodas lasses were seen not playing with the same intensity they showed in their last outings but managed to put up a good fight to end the first break on 15-15.
Into the second quarter, Sri Lanka changed gears and played switched to aggressive mode as they started the second quarter with scoring 5 back-to-back goals to put pressure on the opponents.
Sri Lanka’s dominance in the second quarter forced Barbados’s coach to introduce their experience Sasha Corbin at wing attack and the move of her sister, Kadeen, who previously won Commonwealth Games gold with England, from goal, shooter to goal attack for Barbados.
But their tactics didn’t favour them as they remained four goals behind at halftime.
Into the second half, Barbados finally found their rhythm and scored a few back-to-back goals to narrow the deficit and surged ahead to win the third quarter by 22 goals to 12.
Heading into the all-important fourth and final quarter, Sri Lanka showed they never give up attitude and out on an improved performance in the dying moments to stage a comeback and claim a memorable 60-56 win.
The win also re-wrote history as Sri Lanka’s first time in 20 years that the Sri Lankans have beaten anyone other than Singapore at the Netball World Cup.
Despite the only victory, overall Sri Lanka had a poor outing in this year’s championship which they lost all their previous (5) matches including the game against their Asian counterparts Singapore.
Interestingly this year’s Netball world cup will mark the tallest netballer in the world and Sri Lanka’s netball backbone, Tharjini Sivalingam’s last appearance on an international stage where she is set to retire from the game following the world cup which is yet to announce officially.
*Sri Lanka’s performance so far in the tournament *
JAMAICA 105-25 SRI LANKA
Jamaica got their tournament off to a storming start, notching up a formidable 105-point total in their opening Group C match against Sri Lanka.
SOUTH AFRICA 87-32 SRI LANKA
Ruthless host South Africa romp to a commanding win over Sri Lanka to make it two-in-two at the Netball World in their second game of Pool C encounter.
WALES 68-52 SRI LANKA
Into the third game though Asian Champions Sri Lanka put on an improved performance but ended in the losing side against Wales.
SINGAPORE 55-52 SRI LANKA
A disciplined Singapore side defeated their Asian rivals Sri Lanka 52-55 to make matters worse for the Lankans.
ZIMBABWE 71-36 SRI LANKA
Zimbabwe had no problem in sweeping past Sri Lanka in a Group E match.
