The Hindu : Sport : India crashes out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 27, 2006

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

India crashes out

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: India lost its third straight league tie in Group B and with that blew its chances of making the semifinals in the fifth Asian Youth netball championship for girls at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday. India came up with an improved display in its last outing, but that was not sufficient to stop a seasoned Singapore outfit, which won 65-23. India will now play for minor places (5 to 7) with Maldives and Hong Kong.

Tale of missed chances

It was once again a tale of missed opportunities for India, which showed a better defence, but was unable to improvise in attack. Indian Champa Gunwardene pulled out goal shooter Monalisa Ruben and played her as wing attacker and brought in Reeta in her place. Though the latter, played a steady game, she lacked the flair of Monalisa. Skipper Preethi Banchor picked up 12 points.

Singapore which led 20-8 by the first quarter, maintained the momentum, playing at a good pace and effectively used long passes to keep the goal shooter, Yasmin Ho and goal attacker, Veronica Clark busy. Singapore after leading 32-13 at the end of the second quarter, turned on the heat in the third quarter, piling 17 more points as against India's five and substitute goal shooter, Yeo Pei Qin did the maximum damage scoring 12 points. India faced a tough task to bridge the big deficit and conceded 16 more points in the last quarter.

Easy for Malaysia

The defending champion Malaysia pummelled a hapless Maldives 69-16 in its opening tie in Group A. Goal shooter Aruna was in good nick for Malaysia and scored 43 points. Maldives, which lost its second match in the three team Group A, thus finished at the bottom of the pool.

The results (league): Group A: Malaysia 69 (Aruna 14, Husna Hussain Ali 17) bt Maldives 16 (Mariyam Shifza 12). Group B: Singapore 65 (Yasmin Ho 15, Veronica Clarke 28, Yeo Pei Qin 12) bt India 23 (Reeta 11, Preethi Banchor 12).