After successive defeats, the Cook Islands netball team bounced back to beat Canada on day four of the Mirxes Nations Cup in Singapore this week.

The national side displayed an outstanding performance to beat Canada 63-37 on Tuesday night (Cook Islands time).

With this victory, the Cook Islands became the leading team to secure the most significant winning margin of 36 goal.

The team came together with a strong game plan and high spirits despite losing their previous two matches against Singapore (36-58) and Sri Lanka (52-63). In their opening match of the tournament, Cook Islands defeated Singapore A 53-50.

According to Mirxes media, the first quarter against Canada was closely contested and physical battle, with the Cook Islands edging 13-11.

However, in the subsequent three quarters, the Cook Islands dominated and extended their lead.

National team goal shooter Maya Piakura also earned her first cap in the match against Canada. Aleida Tere and Kimberly Tangirere also made their international debut versus Canada.

The 17-year-old Piakura said: “We had so much hunger and so much fire (against Canada). Hats off to my teammates, they pulled through, and it just shows their character and resilience.”

On their social media page, Netball Cook Islands said: “A great match between Canada and Cook Islands. Cook Islands finding their groove and clinical in their decision-making tonight (Tuesday) that got them the win. International debuts by Maya Piakura, Aleida Tere and Kimberly Tangirere.”

In other matches on Tuesday, Papua New Guinea defeated Sri Lanka 67-51 while Singapore overcame Singapore A 55-31.

Cook Islands faced Papua New Guinea last night (Thursday) in their final match.

PNG’s midfielder Yves Angelina Chee earlier said: “It’s definitely about playing to our strengths. We know that as a playing group, our strengths are our speed and our agility to get around players. Seeing as the Cook Islands is quite a tall team, we definitely need to use that to our advantage to get the win for us.”

The Mirxes Nations Cup follows a round-robin format that includes top-ranked teams, namely Cook Islands (ranked 19th), Sri Lanka (ranked 20th), Papua New Guinea (ranked 36th), Canada (unranked), and Singapore’s very own opens (ranked 26th) and A teams.

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