Malaysia, Namibia and Fiji go into the rest day on a winning note at Nations Cup

Day four at the FairPrice Foundation Nations Cup in Singapore and there were wins for Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Malaysia jostled to get their second win of the competition at the start of the day with Malaysia just getting the upper hand with a 51-53 win.

Malaysia have continued to improve with each game and have benefitted from no forced-changes to their team line-up unlike their opposition who are battling with a reduced squad of only nine players due to injuries.

In the first half, PNG failed to convert their chances on too many occasions while the goals were dropping more easily at the other end of the court. Malaysia - ahead 19-24 by half time- looked as though they’d stretch the margin for the remainder of the game but PNG came out and performed like a different team in the second half and almost snatched the victory.

Switching Co-Captain Lua Rikis from defence (GD) to attack (GA) for the second half was a crucial move as she scored 22 of her 26 chances and PNG took the third quarter 16-12. The crowd were captivated by the final 15 minutes of end-to-end action as the lead changed hands several times then a few consecutive goals by Malaysia in the closing minutes sealed it for them.

Rikis gave her post-match analysis, “We were too relaxed in the first two quarters. Our coach said at half time that we just have to go out and give our all and I think everyone did. We did the swap so that I had to go in and swap.

“I do shoot back at home but we’re trying to make space for the new, younger players here but when there is a need for me to go back in, I will. I am really impressed with our other shooter (Marie Ottio) who has been playing very well.

“We have a day off tomorrow so I hope the girls can regroup and come back on Saturday and play like we did in the second half and continue like that. Sunday will be our last match for the year so we’ll be giving it everything, whichever match we’re playing in.”

Malaysian Coach, Norizan Rajab, looked relieved. She said, “My girls played very hard today so I must congratulate them. There has been a lot of improvement this week.

“I have lots of players that can play any position so I didn’t have any problems with making changes. We can use our one day rest to prepare for our next game, especially the shooting side. I hope on Saturday, against Singapore we can have a very good game.

“Singapore is a good team. They have the experienced and strong players in the centre court and they have a good shooting combination but I hope my girls can give them a good fight.”

The ever-improving Namibia put in a fine display against Sri Lanka with a 49-77 win which gives them four points on the table and a real chance of playing off for 3^rd and 4^th position in Sunday’s finals.

Comfortably ahead at half time (24-45) thanks to some consistent shooting from youngest team member Nelandre Mostert and the defence working well to block out the 209cm shooter and Sri Lankan Captain Tharjini Sivalignam who had only 51 attempts at goal (48 scored).

Coach Marcha Myburgh said, “It was a very good win for us. We tried for 80 points but unfortunately we didn’t get there. I am very happy for the team. We came here to boost our rankings so we’re very happy. We’re looking forward to the off day tomorrow and then we take on Fiji after that. It’s going to be a hard game and a very physical game. We’re both bigger than the average teams so I think it’s going to be a very hard game.

“We tried to play all our girls tonight and I think the rest day tomorrow will be very welcome.”

Mostert was pleased with her performance in her first Nations Cup. She said, “It was a really good match tonight. We worked hard and we really deserved the win.

“We haven’t played a lot of international games so I think we are doing well and can still improve. Saturday is going to be a very tough game. We don’t know what to expect but we keep our hopes up.

“This is my first year playing overseas so this is my first international tournament. This game is the best I have had so far. The others I could have done better but I feel good about it.”

The last match had the crowds cheering throughout as the top-two teams so far this week went head to head – Fiji and Singapore. In an entertaining and end to end match the world number seven side kept their supremacy with a 47-35 result.

Fiji didn’t have it all their own way though and took the first quarter by just three goals 11-8. Singapore took a moment to adjust to such strong, quick and confident opponents but then found their rhythm and stayed in the hunt.

In the second quarter top ranking team (World Ranking 7) stretched ahead (25-13) as their shooters took their chances and their defence prevented Singapore creating many of their own.

The battle continued after the break and Singapore made a few changes and scored only four goals less than Fiji in the third period. Their confidence grew and the slightly slower pace of the final quarter suited the hosts with them outscoring Fiji 8-12. This will give their fans and themselves a great boost ahead of what is likely to be a second show-down with the Pacific Islanders on Sunday for the top two places in the competition.

Una Rokoura, Fijian Coach was pleased with the win but not the overall performance. She explained, “We started really well in our first three quarters but we were disappointing in the last quarter, losing it 8-12. We made changes to bring in fresh legs but we were disappointed we didn’t catch up to Singapore. They were playing more of our style and slowed the game down but we rushed it. The whole team is not satisfied with the win as we could have done better.

“We will rethink our strategy and come back strong against Namibia. We are here to play the very best of our netball so we want to go out and play against Namibia and give the best we’ve got. We’re on a roll and we want to keep going.”

Singapore’s Coach, Kate Carpenter was positive with the team ending on a high. She said “The second quarter wasn’t good for us; Fiji really dominated in that quarter and were very accurate. Down our end we weren’t accurate and didn’t get enough balls to our shooters so there was too much turnover and error.

“The fourth quarter was a winning quarter. We came alive. We’ll be looking at what we did well in that quarter and less of what we didn’t do in the others.

“We have a lot of respect for Malaysia, they’re the Asian team we play most often and they have been playing very good, efficient netball. They’ve held up well tonight for an upset win tonight so we’re very mindful of their abilities.”

Co-Captain Lin Qingyi added, “It was a decent performance. We were working quarter to quarter. I am happy with the fourth quarter. I think we lost to the better team. They set uo zone defence around us which is tough but we managed to get through and that is something we have to work on before Sunday’s finals.”

Mid-court player Nurul Baizura found it tough in the middle when she came on in the final 15 minutes (WA). “I told myself to be ready to come on and I told myself, if we can’t win the first three quarters then maybe this is one we can win and we did. We were composed, it was difficult to get through those bodies but we’re working on it and we will continue to work on it. On Sunday we will go for it and not hold back anything.”

To guarantee another match-up against Fiji, Singapore needs to win against Malaysia on Saturday at 4pm which will be a tough Asian derby.

Friday is a rest day for the players before the final round-robin matches on Saturday.

Netball Singapore
8 December 2011