Top ranking teams dominate on Nations Cup opening day: Singapore, Scotland and Wales claim victory in first matches
Singapore, 6th December 2010 - Singapore started their NTUC FairPrice Foundation Netball Nations Cup campaign with an impressive victory over India, winning 58 - 22 in front of a 1200 strong home crowd. Scotland also triumphed over Tanzania 46 - 33, while Wales beat Namibia 61 - 28.
The Singapore team (ranked 19th) fielded all 12 squad members against 25th placed India, with all four shooters registering on the score sheet.Goal Shooter Tan Hui Yan scored 31 goals, ably assisted by Goal Attack Chen Hui Fen with 23. Both Cassandra Soh and Nurul Baizura Binte Abdul Bazak also earned their first international caps with Cassandra coming on in the fourth quarter and scoring four goals as Goal Shooter. Li Ling also joined the team as Goal Attack scoring seven, while team veteran Jean Ng also laid claim to her 80th international cap.
Commenting on her debutant match for the Singapore National Team, Cassandra said: “I am thankful for my teammates’ support and their encouragement on and off the court.” Reflecting on her performance she added: “I will be working with my Goal Shooter to prevent clashing and make more precise sharper movements.”
Questioned whether she was surprised at the margin of victory, National captain, Lin Qinyi, said: “It’s about what we expected given that we had met them in the Asian Champs.” She acknowledged however that every team in the tournament has a different playing style so Singapore will be doing their homework to prepare for their upcoming matches.
In the second game, Scotland, the highest ranked team in the competition at 16th, also laid claim to the highest individual scorer on opening day. Goal Shooter Lesley MacDonald who is also a technical adviser for the squad, converted 34 of her 41 attempts on goal and led the team to victory against a strong Tanzanian side with an aggressive final quarter.
Last but not least, the crowd was entertained by Nation's Cup debutants Namibia (ranked 24th) and Wales. In the highest scoring game of the evening, the world ranked 17th Welsh team put on a solid performance to beat the relatively unknown Namibian side 61 - 28 in an action packed second half.
Following the Scottish victory, Scottish coach Denise Holland said, "We played a really tough competitive game of netball. I am really pleased with the quality, not only physically but in terms of skill level. We've not been under that pressure in a long time and we were still able to stay composed. Overall I am really delighted to take the win."
Commenting on the Singapore's form, Denise continued: "Singapore played a solid first half but they weren't really pressured. It will be interesting to see how they will play against the African style."
All will be revealed when Singapore meet Tanzania tomorrow at 6.00pm. Scotland will also hope to put in another strong showing against Namibia at 4.00pm, while Wales meet India at 8.00pm.
Match 1: Singapore v India: 58 - 22 (HT: 36 - 10)
Match 2: Scotland v Tanzania: 46 - 33 (HT: 20 - 18)
