Netball Nations Cup: Singapore start campaign with crushing 73-36 victory over Sri Lanka

Story by Grace Sim/Red Sports. Photos by Vanessa Lim and Low Hui Yu/Red Sports

Toa Payoh Indoor Sports Hall, Monday, December 5, 2011 — Victory was sweet for home team Singapore as they outclassed Sri Lanka 73-36 in the opening match of the Netball Nations Cup 2011.

The girls avenged themselves for the disappointing loss to the defending Asian champions during the World Netball Championships held earlier this year in July.

From the get go, the girls in red asserted their dominance on court and capitalized on turnover opportunities to obtain a five-goal lead minutes into the game. Donning the Goal Keeper bib in her first international game, newcomer Chen Li Li made full use of her 1.96m stature to keep the Sri Lankan Goal Shooter Tharjini Sivalingam at bay.

The Sri Lankan captain proved to be a handful for the Singaporean defenders during the World Netball Championships with her height of 2.09m. Chen’s inclusion in the new line-up for the Republic and the height-for-height pressure was effective in rattling the Sri Lanka attackers.

Many players of the Sri Lankan team were also making their debut on the international stage during the Nations Cup and their inexperience was evident. With the Singapore team putting up a tight defence, the Sri Lankan midfielders could not find free spaces to connect their passes and were forced to lob the ball prematurely into Sivalingam’s hands with limited success. Coupled with a number of unforced errors by their opponents, the Republic raced to a 20-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The initial period of the second quarter saw a stronger contest as both teams converted their respective centre passes.

The Sri Lankan attack seemed to have found momentum in their play and they managed to match the Singapore team goal-for-goal up till the fifth minute before the Singapore defence stepped up their game. At half time, the 34–17 Singapore lead reflected a one-sided affair.

Despite the Sri Lankan coach, Hyacinth Wijesinghe, making several changes to the line-up in the third quarter in a bid to improve the offense, their attackers had trouble receiving centre passes aimed behind Singapore’s tight defence formed by Vanessa Lee (Centre), Charlene Porima (Wing Defence), and Lin Qingyi (Goal Defence).

The Republic continued their scoring streak and extended their lead to 54–28 by the end of the third quarter.

The substantial lead going into the last quarter allowed Singapore to play the rest of their players who had not taken the court, including Yu Meiling on her debut international match as Goal Shooter. Yu converted 100% of her 14 attempted shots.

The Singapore team continued to build on their lead against their weaker counterparts and closed the match with a remarkable 73–36 victory.

Singapore coach Kate Carpenter attributed much of the success to Chen’s splendid performance as Goal Keeper.

She said: “She [Chen] created some turnovers individually (and) it also allows the ball not to go directly (into the circle) and it holds up (from higher up court). It means that others could create turnovers out in front as well. That match in height closes options down (for the opponents).”

In agreement, Singapore co-captain Lin Qingyi commented: “Before the game, we weren’t sure what the match-up would be. We were all looking at how Li Li [Chen] would match up against Tharjini and she did really well. From a goal defence’s point of view, it is easy because I can take off the jumping role and focus on what I usually do as a goal defence.”

This victory gives the Singapore team confidence for the Asian Championship to be held next year. Lin stated: “(The result is) encouraging. This is an Asian game. We have already lost to them (Sri Lanka) three times. With this win, we are back into the game. We just need to brush up on the things that we didn’t do well.”

The Singapore team looks forward to continuing their successful campaign in the Nations Cup and will face Papua New Guinea at 6:00pm on Tuesday, December 6th.

Go to next page for more photos