India beat Japan at the Asian Netball Championships

Indian team were clinical in their win against Japan

The closest contest of day three was saved for last as India took their first two points of the competition when they survived a hard fight with Japan to win 60-52. Just three points separated the two sides after the opening 15 minutes (15-12) and it was the same again in the second period to give India a 31-25 lead at the half.

India finished 5th at the 2012 Championships, while Japan finished 9th but there was not much separating the sides today, showing Japan’s progress in these two years. Japan lost the third quarter by a single point (16-15) and again in the final quarter (13-12), but they couldn’t get over the threshold to control the match. India’s scoring was just too good at a 91% average for the team.

Indian Captain, Rupinder Kaur said, “That was a very hard match, Japan are a very good team. I am very happy with the win and for the next matches we will try and get more wins.”

Japanese Coach, Eiko Tago spoke passionately about the match. She said, “We thought we could win that game. The players did really well, but as the coach I wished for the win, especially for the team. Even though tomorrow is a day off from play, we'll be training hard especially around the goal circle. The first quarter is the most important quarter so it is important we have our best team on court then. The team is improving but so are all the other teams.

“Many of our players are inexperienced and have only started playing netball recently so its great to see their improvement as well as our shooting percentage increase over the three games. However, our shooting percentage always falls short of the other teams so that's where we need to continue improving.”

Japan will watch the action from the stands tomorrow while India takes on Vietnam.

RESULTS

09 SEPT:

Match 9: MYANMAR 11-109 SRI LANKA (HT 6-45)

Match 10: HONG KONG 80-17 VIETNAM (HT 43-9)

Match 11: BRUNEI 33-56 CHINESE TAIPEI (HT 17-35)

Match 12: INDIA 60-52 JAPAN (HT 31-25)

08 SEPT:

Match 5: MYANMAR 32-60 BRUNEI (HT 19-26)

Match 6: JAPAN 24-66 HONG KONG (HT 10-29)

Match 7: CHINESE TAIPEI 35-63 MALAYSIA (HT 20-36)

Match 8: VIETNAM 8-84 SINGAPORE (HT 2-46)

07 SEPT:

Match 1: SINGAPORE 67-13 JAPAN (HT 38-7)

Match 2: MALAYSIA 79-15 BRUNEI (HT 49-4)

Match 3: HONG KONG 84-17 INDIA (HT 39-7)

Match 4: SRI LANKA 57-36 CHINESE TAIPEI (HT 29-22)

FIXTURES

SCHEDULE
10-Sep	13	B	1.00pm	Malaysia		vs	Myanmar
Wednesday	14	A	3.00pm	Vietnam		vs	India
	15	B	5.00pm	Brunei		vs	Sri Lanka
	16	A	7.00pm	Singapore		vs	Hong Kong
11-Sep	17	B	1.00pm	Chinese Taipei		vs	Myanmar
Thursday	18	A	3.00pm	Japan		vs	Vietnam
	19	B	5.00pm	Sri Lanka		vs	Malaysia
	20	A	7.00pm	India		vs	Singapore
End of Round Games
12-Sep Friday	OFF DAY
Semi-Finals and Playoffs
13-Sep	21	Semi-Finals 5:8	11.00am		Group A 3rd	vs	Group B 4th
Saturday	22	Semi-Finals 5:8	1.00pm		Group B 3rd	vs	Group A 4th
	23	Semi-Finals 1:4	3.00pm		Group A 1st	vs	Group B 2nd
	24	Semi-Finals 1:4	5.00pm		Group B 1st	vs	Group A 2nd
	25	9th vs 10th	7.00pm		Group A 5th	vs	Group B 5th
Finals
14-Sep	26	7th vs 8th	10.00am		Loser of G21	vs	Loser of G22
Sunday	27	5th vs 6th	12.00pm		Winner of G21	Vs	Winner of G22
	28	3rd vs 4th	2.00pm		Loser of G23	vs	Loser of G24
	29	1st vs 2nd	4.00pm		Winner of G23	vs	Winner of G24
		ALL	5.30pm		Closing Ceremony & Prize Presentation

World Rankings (as of 25-08-14)

Singapore - 18

Malaysia – 20

Sri Lanka – 24

Hong Kong – 25

All other competing nations are currently unranked.