Victories for India, Japan and Brunei on Day 3 of the tournament

SINGAPORE, 3 September 2018 – The third day of the M1 Asian Netball Championships (M1 ANC) saw victories for India, Japan, Brunei and Hong Kong, with the latter securing a semi-final spot in the tournament with their resounding win over the Philippines. 

India and Chinese Taipei kicked off the third day of matches at the M1 ANC with the South Asian nation stepping up a gear and notching a 50-goal victory over Chinese Taipei for a 75-25 scoreline. Despite a determined performance from the youthful Chinese Taipei team, India put in a strong and consistent performance throughout the four quarters, scoring goals with much ease while holding their opponents to ten goals or less each quarter.

On the her team’s performance today, India’s vice-captain Ranjitha Badenahalli remarked, “We played well and had a very good strategy after losing the match against Sri Lanka yesterday. Both attack and defence did well and our coaches and managers inspired us for the win today.” 

In the second match of the day, Hong Kong steamrolled their way through to the semi-finals with an impressive win over the Philippines. Hong Kong powered through right from the first whistle for a dominant first quarter (22-3). It was much of the same for the remaining three quarters, with Hong Kong outplaying Philippines by at least 10 goals each quarter, for a final scoreline of 73-15.

Hong Kong’s victory sees them placed in the Cup Grouping (Group E), together with Singapore, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, where all teams will battle it out over the next three days to see who they’ll match up with in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s fixture against the Malaysians, Hong Kong Coach Robin Manihera said: “With Malaysia, it’s going to be tough. We’ve played them twice now and they play a similar game to us. We will need to keep up the intensity and I think it will be a mental challenge for both sides.” 

The third game of the M1 ANC was a neck-to-neck matchup between Japan and Maldives, with the lead changing multiple times throughout the evening. However, the Japanese ran out as eventual winners after edging the final quarter by three and taking the game by a single goal for a 35-34 score.

Japanese player Kara Cheung was delighted with her team closing out the game and commented: “We did really well, especially when it was so close and intense at the end. We’re so excited that we won that game. Defence is really important so we will need to improve on that for our next games.”

In the final match of Day 3 at the M1 ANC, Brunei blazed past an inexperienced Pakistan side to take the game 62-16. It was a marked improvement from the Brunei team after their loss against Singapore earlier in the tournament, where they scored an average of 15 goals, while limiting Pakistan to less than six goals each quarter. 

Brunei Coach Jane Searle said: “It was pleasing as we got all our players out there for some decent court time. With every game we look to improve and get our connections right and today it was a good opportunity to do that for us. It will be a tough game against Thailand tomorrow but we’ll definitely be out to win it. We’ll put our best foot forward tomorrow.” 

Brunei’s win places them together with Japan, India and Thailand in the Plate Grouping (Group F), while Maldives, Chinese Taipei, Pakistan and the Philippines will battle it out in the Bowl Grouping (Group G). 

The second round of matches starts tomorrow with Brunei kicking it off against Thailand at 9am, followed by Philippines against Pakistan. The third game of Day 4 sees Japan take on India at 1pm, and Maldives and Chinese Taipei right after at 3pm. It’s then Malaysia against Hong Kong in the first game of the Cup Group, and the final match of the day will see Singapore match up against Sri Lanka at 7pm.