In the event being held at the covered hall of Dasharath Stadium, Nepal made a dominant start and lead the first quarter 22-0. Nepal gave continuity to its momentum until the third quarter but lagged behind in the fourth quarter.After a dominating start, Nepal's coach Bikash Shahi fielded new set in the second quarter. Nepal however gave continuity to its momentum and wrapped up the second and third quarter 19-13, 24-6 respectively and finished the final quarter 12-17.
Coach Shahi pointed out that his side flattered in the final quarter due to technical errors and weaknesses of the home team. "We failed to play to our potential today. I am not satisfied with the way team performed since there were many weaknesses," Shahi said. "There was sound coordination in the beginning, but we lacked the same momentum after the first set was replaced. There were also flaws in shooting and we failed to perform to our level."
Shahi said that his side came up with new strategy against Maldives since they took the opponent lightly. "We were confident to beat the opponent, thus we did not field our key player for the whole period. We will surely have advantage of this in upcoming matches."
Nepal which defeated Bangladesh 92-26 in the opening match will face Bhutan in the third match on Thursday. Coach Shahi said that his side was setting strategy targeting Sri Lanka, the toughest opponent for Nepal in the five team contest being played in the round robin league format. "We must be focused against Sri Lanka match. They are better than us in all aspects including technical and physical aspects."
Sneha Shrestha who contributed the highest 24 points for Nepal against Maldives also took her scoring tally to 49 points, the highest by a Nepali player in the tournament. In the opener against Bangladesh, she had netted 25 points. Priti Tulachan, the vice-captain of the team contributed 14 points for home team.
Maldives coach TH Amath lauded Nepal as a strong side and tagged Sneha as a talented player. "She is a talented player and has extraordinary skills than other players," Amath said who was also full of praise for his side. "The girls came up with good show against Nepal. The team is studded with youth and inexperienced players."
Hussna Mohamed opened the account for Maldives in the second quarter with a free shot. Fathimath S Afzai netted highest nine points for Maldives.
In another match, Sri Lanka blanked Nepal 112-31 to register second win in a row. Earlier, Sri Lanka had defeated Maldives 106-39 on Tuesday. Sri Lanka led all four quarters 31-6, 28-11, 31-12, 22-2 to wrap up a comfortable victory.
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