Tuskers top group ‘C’with two good wins

Sri Lanka battered the United Arab Emirates with a smashing 55-7 and followed up their perfect form to overcome Thailand by 28-5 yesterday to secure a Cup quarter-final slot against the Philippines, on the first day of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series in Mumbai, India. The two wins put Sri Lanka on top of Group ‘C’ as they completed a fine first day of the third leg of the Asian Sevens Series began at the Bombay Gymkhana Club.

Among the top winners were Asian top seed Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, the other three teams to dominate the day’s proceedings.

Today Sri Lanka will meet the Philippines in the third quarter-final of the Cup segment, as Japan and Thailand open the top knockout clash at 10.20am local time. Sri Lanka’s game will follow after the clash between South Korea and Malaysia while in the fourth quarterfinal game; Hong Kong is set to take on Singapore in pursuit of semi-final slots which will be played from 4.20pm.

Virtually the entire team played gallantly for the Tuskers as skipper Fazil Marija, Chula Susantha, Jason Dissanayake, Sandun Herath, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Mi- thun Hapugoda and Shehan Pathirana did the scoring for them. In the first game against the Emirates, Sri Lanka displayed that they possess skill, determination while the Thais were handled with loss pressure, with perfect offloading and strong running. With the current form overcoming their initial hurdle against the Filipinos today looks to be an easy task, though the Tuskers are not in a mood to relax. A win will send them through to the semi-final where they are pitted to take on either Hong Kong or Singapore.

Japan topped the Group ‘A’ with comfortable wins against Chinese Taipei (28-5) and the Philippines (39-7) who finished at second beating Chinese Taipei (31-7). The Group ‘B’ was dominated by South Korea who crushed Singapore (415) and Kazakhstan (35-0) without much hassle. Singapore beat the Kazakhs (14-0) to secure the second slot. Hong Kong secured the top position of Group ‘D’ beating China (40-5) and Malaysia (36-12). Malaysia was placed second after overcoming China (14-7) in a closely contested battle.

Japan heads the overall HSBC Asian Sevens Series rankings with a maximum 24 points while Hong Kong is in second place with 22 points followed by Sri Lanka and South Korea with 19 points each. In the first of the Seven’s Series played in Malaysia, Korea was placed third while Sri Lanka was placed fourth. In Thailand Sri Lanka snatched the third place from Korea. For Hong Kong it is a must-win in Mumbai if they are to keep their Asian Sevens title with the Singapore Series to be played.