Two experienced netballers Gayani Dissanayake and Hasitha Mendis had achieved personal landmarks for Sri Lanka during the ongoing 13th Asian Senior Netball Championships in Bengaluru, India.

Dissanayake, a seasoned player in the national team, had completed 100 career international matches for her country during Sri Lanka’s match against Philippines last week.

In the meantime, her colleague Mendis had reached 50 career international matches during the game against India.

In Sri Lankan netball history only Gayathri Lankathilaka, Sasika Samarasingha and Tharjini Sivalingam had reached the coveted milestone before Gayani Dissanayake.

Dissanayake, a former captain also has had the satisfaction of equaling Tharajini Sivalingam’s record of representing the country at six Asian Netball Championships during the current competition.

Hasitha Mendis from the Navy SC has also been a vital cog in the well-oiled Lankan netball machine, having been a member of the Sri Lanka World Cup side in 2019.

The six-time winners were slated to confront Japan in their next outing in the Asia Cup yesterday (22), after they had recorded comfortable wins over Philippines (71-42), Saudi Arabia (118-8), and hosts India (81-31), respectively in their previous ties.

The remaining fixtures for Dulangi Wannithilaka’s women will be against Malaysia today (23) and against Maldives on Friday (25). 

(JK)