Sri Lanka defeats Singapore in Asia World Cup Qualifiers
SRI Lanka has claimed the victory in the Asia World Cup Qualifiers, winning by 10 goals over home nation Singapore. The top two sides in the competition earned the right to stamp their tickets to the 2023 Netball World Cup in South Africa, with the pair being the strongest over the tournament and heading into the Gold Medal Match with Sri Lanka having won earlier in the fixture. In one of the tighter matches across the tournament, it was Sri Lanka that picked up the win, 63-53.
The road to the final saw some big wins by both finalists, with Sri Lanka topping its Group A with a whopping 150-goal difference despite playing just the two games. The eventual Gold Medallists won by 88 goals over India and then 62 goals over Phillipines to cruise into the semi-finals. Singapore had an even more impressive Group B, picking up a triple-digit victory over Japan (103-3) and then easily accounting for Maldives by 86 goals.
The pair qualified for the second stage of the tournament alongside fellow top four nations, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Eventual Bronze Medallists Malaysia had taken care of Brunei (56 goals) and Chinese Taipei (57) in the two Group C matches, whilst Hong Kong had just the one initial group match, defeating Thailand by 27 goals, 56-29. The one less match did not deter Hong Kong from taking it up to the other three nations, but it fell short of Singapore (10 goals), Malaysia (nine) and Sri Lanka (11).
From that Group E second round stage, Sri Lanka emerged as the top seed with a plus-31 goal difference largely courtesy of an impressive 18-goal win over Singapore, who finished second thanks to wins over Hong Kong and Malaysia (13 goals). Malaysia’s victory over Hong Kong placed the nation as the third seed heading into the semi-finals. Once again, the top two sides won with Singapore defeating Malaysia by 13 goals in the semi-finals, while Sri Lanka had a more comfortable 24-goal win over Hong Kong.
In the Bronze Medal Match, Malaysia won its second game against Hong Kong, running out 54-42 victors to finish third. Unfortunately it would still not be enough to qualify for the Netball World Cup. Instead, that would be both Sri Lanka and Singapore, who both reached the final. Remarkably it was Singapore who got out to a six-goal lead at quarter time thanks to a 19-13 term, but Sri Lanka closed the gap to three y half-time. Then midway through the third term, the visitors finally hit the front and piled on 19-8 in the term to hold an eight-goal lead. Despite Singapore trying hard to get back into it, the Sri Lankans were too strong and took out the match, and the overall title, 63-53.
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