Sri Lanka’s netball team will return after a poor show managing to beat only Barbados 60-56 in a pool game at the Netball World Cup 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa.
After being seven goals down in the third quarter, they fought back in the last quarter to overcome another versatile team.
Barbados who had defeated Sri Lanka in the 2015 World Cup, ended the first quarter on 15-all.
Sri Lanka improved in the second quarter that saw them take a 21-16 lead with five points coming inside three minutes. But, Barbados managed to reduce the deficit to four points to finish half time on 30/26 with Sri Lanka leading.
Besides this win Sri Lanka started poorly losing all their games at the beginning. This included the loss to another Asian giant in Singapore but among the bottom ranked sides.
Singapore played to a well laid out plan and with discipline they defeated their Asian rivals Sri Lanka 55-52.
Though lacking in height they made up for it with speed and short-pass game and accurate shooting that helped them pile on the points.
Sri Lanka met Singapore again in the play off for 15th place and once again Singapore came from behind to beat Sri Lanka 49-46 on Thursday (3).
Sri Lanka began their quest to reach greater heights in netball when they participated in the World Cup. However, they just could not go far as they started by losing their matches from the beginning.
They lost to Zimbabwe 36-71 in a Pool E game.
Pushed down to rank 9, they lost to Wales 56-68 in their third and final Pool C game.
They went on losing to South Africa 32-87 and lost to Jamaica 25-105.