Nepal registered their second consecutive victory in the first Saba Women’s Championship but looked far from convincing in a 77-36 defeat of Maldives here at the Dashrath Stadium covered hall on Wednesday.

Sneha Shrestha once again sparked in the game tossing in 24 points on a day when Sri Lanka proved them as title contenders one more time with a 112-31 thrashing of Bhutan. Nepal and Sri Lanka are the only unbeaten teams in the tournament and their match in the round robin league tournament will virtually serve as final.

While Nepal had opened their tournament campaign with a 92-26 battering of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka had hammered Maldives 105-39. Nepal coach Bikash Shahi had said his side was yet to come with their best offensive game but it didn’t come against the Maldives. It was only through Shrestha that Nepal managed to widen the win margin. She had also scored 25 points against Bangladesh on Tuesday.

Maldives failed to open the scoring in the first quarter where Nepal scored 22 points. The hosts extended the lead to 28 points scoring 19 in the second quarter with Maldives netting 13. The game was all but over when Nepal added another 24 in the third quarter stopping the opponents on six. Maldives were the surprise leaders in the final quarter scoring 17 points to that of 12 from the hosts.

Shahi said giving chance to second set of players prevented them from a big margin victory. “We were almost certain to win the game and decided to field our second five in the final quarter. That stopped us from registering a big victory,” said Shahi who was not satisfied by his team’s overall performance.

“There was no coordination between our players and our shooting has been the biggest weakness for us. Maldives were better than Bangladesh but for us, to win the tournament, we have to make sure we amend our mistakes before taking on Sri Lanka.”

Nepal will now play Bhutan in their third match before going for the crucial game against Sri Lanka. Maldives coach Ahmed Nazeef admitted his side failed to match the standard.

“We were beaten physically. It was our first international tournament and to come out good we need to play as many matches as possible. We are learning how we need to play this game,” said the coach. In another match on Thursday, Bangladesh will play Maldives.