Sri Lanka clinch Asian Netball crown for sixth time

By Namal Pathirage reporting from Singapore.

Sri Lanka won the Asian Netball Championship for the sixth time when they defeated Singapore 63-53 in the final encounter played at the OCBC Arena in Singapore on Sunday.

The champions Sri Lanka and runners-up Singapore also qualified to represent the Asian region at the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.  

Even then, unbeaten Sri Lanka’s chances of retaining the title was in doubt at one stage as they conceded the first quarter to their opponents 13-19 and were trailing 27-30 at half time. 

Singapore, who had earlier lost to Sri Lanka 49-67, showed great skill work in the first quarter, and completely outplayed their opponents to lay the platform for a thrilling contest.     
 
Sri Lanka recovered to a certain extent in the second quarter and collected 14 goals while conceding 11 to the home side. 

However, Sri Lanka bounced back into the game midway in the third quarter and managed to level the scores 34-34 and took the lead for the first time at 35-34.         

They never looked back from there onwards and went on to clinch the fourth quarter by a convincing margin of 46-38. This was certainly the turning point of the final as Sri Lanka piled up 19 points while Singapore managed only eight points.

Sri Lanka consolidated their position in the fourth and final quarter through some consistent shooting from their Goal Shooter Tharjani Sivalingam and collected 17 goals while conceding only 15 to their opponents.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Coach Hyacinth Wijesinghe and Skipper Gayanjali Amarawansa said that they were able to achieve this victory through a lot of hardships.

They further stressed that their next goal will be the World Cup in South Africa and hope to take the Sri Lankan Team to a great level at this showpiece event.    

Sri Lanka had earlier won the Asian Netball Championship in 1989, 1997, 2001, 2009 and 2018.