Sri Lanka edge out Malaysia in Asian Netball thriller

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By Namal Pathirage - Reporting from Singapore

Sri Lanka came from behind with a magnificent performance to edge out Malaysia 55-53 in a thrilling 12th Asian Netball Championship second round encounter played at the OCBL Arena in Singapore yesterday.

The defending champions were trailing 13-15 at the completion of the first quarter but recovered well and managed to level the scores 30-30 at the end of the second quarter.
Sri Lanka enjoyed their best period of the game during the third quarter as they dominated these 15 minutes of play to extend their lead to a commanding 45-38.
Malaysia made a late rally to reduce the margin to a couple of points during the last few seconds of the fourth and final quarter, but Sri Lanka held their nerves and went on to register an exciting victory in the end.

After losing the first quarter 13-15, the five-time champions of the Asian Championship, came back to take the second quarter 17-15, third quarter 15-8 and the deciding fourth quarter 15-10 respectively.

Sri Lanka Coach Hyacinth Wijesinghe and Skipper Gayanjali Amarawansa said after the game that they were pleased with the team’s effort, but they never expected this kind of challenge from the Malaysian team, which had won the title in 1985 and 2016.

Sri Lanka Coach and the Captain also vowed to produce an improved performance in today’s second round match against the 2018 runners-up Singapore.