SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Singapore survived a late comeback from Malaysia in the semi-finals of the Asian Netball Championship on Saturday night to set up a meeting with two-time defending champions Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday (Oct 27) night.
It was a tale of two halves in the clash between the Causeway rivals, with world No. 24 Singapore eventually winning 54-46.
Singapore’s interim coach Yeo Mee Hong said they had the strong start that they wanted as they raced to a 33-18 half-time lead.
“We finished really well in the first quarter, and then we were pulling the score away in the second quarter,” she said.
Some poor ball handling and decision-making in the second half allowed the Malaysians to come back.
Yeo added: “We expected that from the Malaysians and the way our girls controlled the game towards the end was good, but we have to work on our consistency.”
The match was delayed by 15 minutes to deal with a flying ant situation at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru, India, but both teams appeared unfazed when they got onto the court.
It did not take long for Singapore to settle down.
Capitalising on mistakes and sloppy passing from the 31st-ranked Malaysians, the Republic went ahead 16-10 at the end of the first quarter.
Returning to the court with confidence, Singapore had their best period of the game with a 17-8 score that extended their advantage to 33-18 as they went into the interval.
However, the Republic had to stave off a rally by the Malaysians, who found some momentum with the introduction of veteran defender Nurshamilia Md Samsudin.
Amid defensive lapses by Singapore, Malaysia narrowed the gap with a succession of goals to 43-32 after the third quarter.
It was a tense final 15 minutes, but Singapore held on even as they played with just six players for the last 30 seconds after goal-defence Jamie Lim was sent off.
National co-captain Khor Ting Fang believes there were improvements to how the team started, an area that they had been working on after matches against Hong Kong and Thailand earlier in the week, but acknowledged there are still details that need refining.
She said: “We knew that with Malaysia, there’s always the Causeway rivalry, we bring out the intensity when we play against each other.
“Towards the second half, we didn’t control our game, we didn’t control the momentum well enough, there were some parts where we could’ve cleaned up a lot more in terms of passing and how we backed each other up.
“That’s something we will work on... for tomorrow. Kudos to Malaysia for giving us a hard fight.”
Khor and her teammates will be looking to end Singapore’s 10-year title drought in the Asian championship, but will have to overcome Sri Lanka, who beat Hong Kong 71-47 in the other semi-final.
In the last two editions, they finished runners-up behind Sri Lanka, who have won the title six times. Before Singapore’s last continental win in 2014, they were also champions in 2012 and 2005.
With both sides having won all their matches so far, Khor knows that they will have to minimise their errors to emerge victorious.
She added: “That’s how we can make sure we are challenging them step for step and keeping the score tight, and hopefully taking the win tomorrow.” - The Straits Times/ANN
