An unseeded Japanese Youth team created the 1st upset of the Asian Netball Championships when they defeated 8th ranked Maldives by 9 goals in their Group A encounter yesterday.
The Japanese, who came into the tournament as a relatively unknown quantity sprang a surprise on the unsuspecting Maldivians to take the Number 2 spot in the Group A standings behind defending Champions Malaysia.
Yesterday’s matches were much closer contests than the matches on day 1, with Brunei, hosts Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei being the other victorious teams.
All Sri Lankan eyes were on the game between Chinese Taipei and India as Sri Lanka has never faced the Chinese Taipei team before. They proved to be too much to handle for the Indians but Team Sri Lanka would be confident of overcoming them in their next group game scheduled to take place later today.
Having lost their 2nd game of the tournament both India and Maldives will now move on to the Bowl matches alongside the bottom of the table finishers from Group C and D while the teams going into the Cup and Plate rounds will be decided after today’s matches.
Day 2 Scores
Chinese Taipei 66 – 36 India
Brunei 63 – 23 Abu Dhabi
Maldives 42 – 51 Japan
Hong Kong 41 – 33 Thailand
Matches scheduled for day 3
Thailand vs Pakistan
Singapore vs Abu Dhabi
Chinese Taipei vs Sri Lanka
Malaysia vs Japan
