Singapore began their Netball World Cup (NWC) campaign in winning style,
beating long-time Asian rivals, Sri Lanka, 56-43 in an exciting
encounter at the Netball Central in the Sydney Olympic Park, Australia
on Friday.
It was a rematch of the finals of the Mission Foods Asian Netball
Championships 2014 in which Singapore won 59-41. Back in the World
Netball Championships (WNC) 2011, the Sri Lankans beat Singapore 62-51.
Singapore fielded a relatively familiar side with 5 of the players from
the 2011 WNC side, Chen Huifen and Charmaine Soh leading the attack,
Nurul Baizura and NWC debut Kimberly Lim in midcourt and Premila
Hirubalan, Captain Micky Lin and NWC debut Chen Li Li holding the fort
in defence.
It was Sri Lanka who started the match better, putting in 4 shots before
Singapore responded with a goal by centurion, Chen Huifen. Nerves, poor
shooting and stray passes gave Singapore a shaky start. It was 2–8 to
Sri Lanka after 7 minutes before Singapore settled into the game and had
a good run of 6 goals, putting the score at 8-8 at 10 minutes. Since
then, it was goal for goal, and the quarter ended 12-12, with Sri
Lanka’s 193cm Goal Shooter, Thishala Algama netting the shot in the last
second.
Singapore started strongly in the 2nd quarter, with all players fighting
and defending hard, and led 23-14 after 8 minutes. However, the 9 goal
lead was quickly reduced by the Sri Lankans who played a quick, fast
game, with 2.06m tall Tharjini Sivalingam not in the team. Charmaine
Soh, who shot a 94% shooting accuracy (15/16 shots) in the 2nd quarter,
netted the last goal of the 2nd quarter, putting the score at 30-23.
The second half saw the Sri Lankans closing up the gap and the goal
difference was reduced to just 3 goals 8 minutes into the game.
Singapore’s Ang Shiqi came in to replace Chen Li Li in defence and the
move saw veteran Premila Hirubalan moving in partner Micky Lin in circle
defence. With 3 minutes of the 3rd quarter left, Sri Lanka drew the
match at 34-34 before Singapore picked up their game to end the quarter
39-34.
The last quarter was a repeat of the 2nd quarter as Singapore stomped to
exert their superiority over their opponents, taking the quarter by
17-9. The final result was 56-43.
On the strategy employed against Sri Lanka, Head Coach, Ruth Aitken
said, “The Sri Lankans are bigger than our girls, so when we play too
close together, we allow the Sri Lankan defence to work together. Thus,
we had to run their legs off them, open things up, get the ball moving
fast and once we remember to play the game properly, we are fine.”
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31.8.15
