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New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) India''s eves today suffered their second successive defeat going down to Malawi 26-82 in the netball event of the Commonwealth Games being held at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex here. India faulted both in attack as well as defence managing to score few goals and allowed Malawian Queens too many scoring opportunities.
Malawi''s attacking pair comprising of Mary and Mwayi used direct long feeds to good effect scoring 22 and 24 goals respectively in the first two quarters. Even with the home crowd egging them on, the Indians could not penetrate through the Queens'' defence.
The only bright spot in the otherwise poor performance was shooter Kiranjeet Kaur whose trademark lay-up shot resulted in a few goals. The home team salavaged some pride in the final quarter scoring nine goals.
The heavy loss has ensured that India remained at the bottom of the group table with an embarrassing point difference of -151. "It went better than yesterday, we lack experience and Malawi are ranked in the top six.
They are a good team that played well, we made a few mistakes but if we had played like we did in the last quarter it would have been better," Indian coach Panchali Tatke said while summing up the team''s performance. Indian captain, Prachi Tehlan said there was a need to improve the defence and lack of aggression led to their undoing.
"We need to concentrate on the basics like coming forward to a ball, going back for rebounds and we need to be a little more aggressive," said the skipper who didn''t feature in the match due to an ankle injury. The rival captain however saw some improvement in Indian team''s performance and said they needed more exposure to become a powerful team.
"Indian team is improving, they are playing for the first time in an international competition. Once they have had some exposure they will become a good team," Peace Kaluwa, the Queens'' captain said after the match.
Yesterday, India lost to Australia by the biggest margin ever and another loss against Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow would more or less end medal hopes for the hosts.
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