Day two at FairPrice Foundation Nations Cup delivers more on-court drama

Day two of the FairPrice Foundation Nations Cup produced yet more thrills and spills at Toa Payoh Sports Hall in Singapore and the hosts maintained their unbeaten record much to the pleasure of the home supporters.

The day started with an extremely tight match between Namibia and Malaysia- both sides looking for their first victory in the competition. Namibia were awash with emotion after the final whistle as they came out on top (44-42) but only edged ahead in the final few minutes.

Namibia played the first three quarters with their youngest player, 16 year old Nelandre Mostert as Goal Shooter, ably supported by Captain Jatjinda Kambatuku and they racked-up just 27 goals after a lot of pressure on them from the defence. At the other end of the court, Noor Aitkah Mat Salleh jostled for her shooting position and with her goal attack to assist, they’d nudged ahead by eight goals with one quarter to play (27-35).

Only four minutes to play and Namibia took the lead for the first time all game (41-40) and held on tight to see out the win.

Coach Marcha Myburgh was overcome at their achievement. As the lowest ranking side in the tournament, this was a major stepping stone for them. She said, “Everything just came together at the end. The girls stayed so focused and they stuck to their plan. They didn’t pick up the speed. That was the problem at the beginning; they tried to play at the pace of Malaysia.

“We were still trying some playing combinations today and the girls are still adjusting to the different surface we’re playing on here. At home we play on more of a cement-type surface that has less spring but more give on landing. This is hard for the girls’ legs but they’re getting used to it.

“We are playing Sri Lanka tomorrow. We saw their first game and I think if we stick to our game plan, like we did today then we have a good chance. Winning today – I can’t tell you what it means. For us, this whole tournament is about ranking so this means such a lot. To Namibia but also for me- it’s my first victory as team coach.”

Malaysian Coach, Norizan Rajab, tried to explain the reasons behind their second straight-defeat, “I think my girls played better in yesterday’s game. They had a problem with momentum, they weren’t controlling the ball and our shooters were not performing. They were not communicating on court and we have a few injury problems.

“For tomorrow, we need to work hard with our shooters to make it more consistent and change a few of our attacking strategies. I hope we can play better tomorrow.”

Singapore were on a high from yesterday’s victory over Sri Lanka when they met Papua New Guinea (PNG) – also feeling confident after their win over Namibia – and the hosts continued their winning streak with a 54-36 favourable result.

The shooting combination of Chen Huifen (GA) and Cassandra Soh (GS) worked a treat, the mid court players worked hard to deliver good balls for the on-target pair to convert into points.

With a nine point advantage at half time (27-18) Singapore dipped slightly in the third period allowing PNG to make up some ground and outscored Singapore 8-11. A more confident and composed Singapore returned to court for the final 15 minutes and took control winning the last phase comfortably.

Cassandra Soh felt she had a better performance than day one; “We had great support from the feeders and got some good turnovers. It was a better game for me, I felt good out there.”

Co-Captain Jean Ng added, “Looking at the way things are progressing I think we are gaining a lot of confidence along the way. We’ll take one game at a time and tomorrow is a different style of play again so we will have to adjust. But if we can win again tomorrow then I would say we’re on track but right now we still have a long way to go.”

PNG lost their top goal shooter in the first half to injury and coach Pole Kassman felt this was the turning point of the game. She said, “It was a very physical match. Not very happy with the result but we lost our goal shooter. We lost the game rather than they won it.

“This will be our last loss. The girls need to pick themselves up again and go forward.  We always believe that we’ll come back but we have a young team and towards the end the adrenaline wore off and they panicked and realised they were playing an international match. We have back-up shooters; we just have to work harder.”

Fiji showed their class in the final match as they defeated Sri Lanka 81-24. Ahead by 27 points at halftime, they maintained their momentum and dominance mid-court looking a vastly improved side from their opening match.

Sri Lanka’s key player and Captain Tharjini Sivalignam was given few opportunities to get points back due to the athleticism and strategic play of the Fijians who blocked the ball before it could reach the opposition’s shooting circle where the danger lay.

Fiji Coach Una Rokoura was pleased with the progress. She said, “It was good to see that we’d really planned our game well against Sri Lanka. We analysed their game yesterday and we contained them. I am glad that the girls stuck to the game plan.

“The girls kept their cool. Our aim was for discipline, to cut down on the infringement errors and we did that.

“Papua New Guinea has some new players that we haven’t seen before but we’ll analyse their game tonight and tomorrow morning and look at their game and see what we can work out from there.”

Fiji start off proceedings on the third day of action against Papua New Guinea at 4pm, followed by Malaysia battling Asian rivals Sri Lanka at 6pm and Singapore go for their third win against African nation Namibia at 8pm.

Netball Singapore
6 December 2011