The Cook Islands netball side made a winning start to their Mirxes Nations Cup campaign, beating home side Singapore A 53-50 in their opening match over the weekend.

The national side was scheduled to take on Singapore (main team) earlier this morning.

Cook Islands, the highest-ranked team in the tournament, went into their opening match boasting 173 caps compared to the Singapore A team’s 23.

The Singapore A team maintained the lead for the first three quarters of the match, entering the final quarter with a narrow 41-40 advantage. However, they struggled to match the experience of the Cook Islands team in the last 15 minutes of the game, ultimately resulting in a hard-fought victory for the Cook Islands with a final score of 53-50.

Cook Islands captain Marjorie Katrina Toru said: “There was some really great netball out there. We just took a while to settle into our own gameplay, but we got there in the end.”

“For us, it’s about consistency and getting more balls into the shooting circle. So just taking care of our own centre passes and any turnovers are a bonus.”

In other matches on day one, Papua New Guinea beat Singapore 52-50, and Canada overcame Sri Lanka 50-46.