Netball World Cup 2023: Sri Lanka 56-68 Wales - Feathers progress to next round
- Published
Wales won three of the quarters by just two points in a tight contest against Sri Lanka
Netball World Cup 2023 |
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Venue: Cape Town, South Africa Dates: 28 July to 6 August |
Coverage: Watch live coverage across BBC TV and the BBC iPlayer, listen to commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Sports Extra & BBC Sounds and follow text commentary of selected matches on the BBC Sport website and app. |
Wales beat Sri Lanka 68-56 for their first win of this Netball World Cup to advance to the next qualifying round.
The Welsh Feathers, ranked ninth in the world, took a 17-11 first-quarter lead against the Lionesses, ranked 15th.
In a hard-fought game in Cape Town, South Africa, they led 30-22 at half-time and 50-44 at the end of the third quarter.
Wales finish third in Pool C and will now compete with the top three sides from Pool D in the next round.
Sunday's encounter with Sri Lanka was a must-win for both teams, who had lost both of their other games at the tournament.
Welsh Feathers coach Emily Handyside made one starting line-up change from Saturday's 75-40 defeat by Jamaica, with Clare Jones returning for Shona O'Dwyer at centre, as they reverted to the seven who began Friday's opening 61-50 defeat by hosts South Africa.
There was an eight-minute delay in the game because of blood on the court after Sri Lanka's Dulangi Wannithilake was injured after an accidental hit.
Wales will be in Pool G for the next stage, which starts with an encounter against defending champions New Zealand on Monday (10:00 BST) before matches against Uganda and Trinidad and Tobago.
Alongside Wales, South Africa and Jamaica also advance into that pool but teams do not face opponents they have already played, although the results from their meetings are counted in the table.
The top two teams from that group will then advance to Saturday's semi-finals.
Welsh Feathers captain Nia Jones told Sky Sports: "I think it took us a little bit too long to get into the game.
"We spoke beforehand about having to be on our best to beat this Sri Lankan team, they were undoubtedly going to improve as the tournament went along and of course they've got really accurate target shooters in there and we're not the tallest of teams, so we had to be creative with the strategies that we won ball with today.
"We will undoubtedly have to be better than we were today tomorrow against New Zealand, but I've got confidence we can be."
Wales squad: Nia Jones (capt), Bethan Dyke (vice-captain), Lucy Howells, Clare Jones, Nansi Kuti, Zoe Matthewman, Shona O'Dwyer, Ella Powell-Davies, Georgia Rowe, Christina Shaw, Sarie Watkins, Phillipa Yarranton.
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- Published10 July 2019
