Semi-final showdowns get the crowds going at the Mission Foods Asian Netball Championships
Today was the day that teams learned of their fate. Their results were a ‘winner takes all’ scenario, determining which final position they’d battle for tomorrow, and the biggest prize on offer – the Asian Champions title and trophy was a hotly contested one with a place at the 2015 World Cup also up for grabs for the winning semi-finalists.
INDIA VS BRUNEI
India are targeting a repeat result from the 2012 Championships where they finished in fifth place after a nail-biting win over Brunei (58-56) which was decided only after extra time.
It was an exciting match from start to finish with Brunei showing great improvement once again and they surprised many in the crowd by sitting just one point adrift at half time (22-21). They nudged ahead after the break (33-36) but India got their eye on the goal again and it was a nail-biting final 15 minutes with both teams knowing the importance of the result. The final whistle blew at an incredible 45 goals each.
And so the match moved into extra time where they played seven additional minutes each way. India came out firing and took the first period of extra time but Brunei did their best to battle on despite obvious tired legs and some niggling injuries setting in.
Brunei now compete at 10.00am tomorrow for 7/8th position, a marked improvement on their 10th position two years ago.
Indian Captain, Rupinder Kaur praised the opposition saying, “We played our best but Brunei made it hard for us. They had very good short, sharp passes and their shooting was also good.
“Our defence was not so strong today, our players are new to international netball and were lacking confidence. Tomorrow we must not make the same mistakes. Whoever we meet tomorrow, we will give them a good fight.”
Brunei captain, Asizah Mohd Aszmi was notably disappointed. She said, “We didn’t see this coming, to play extra time, but we prepared very hard for this game against India as we had to win to maintain our aim of sixth place in the competition.”
CHINESE TAIPEI VS JAPAN
The opponents for India and Brunei were determined in match 22 of the competition, but it was more of a one-sided affair with Chinese Taipei winning comfortably, 54-24 to keep their aims of taking fifth place alive.
Taiwan played with more accuracy and control while Japan had too many missed shots on goal to give them a chance of staying contention. By halftime they were trailing by 15 points and Chinese Taipei grew in confidence on the second half, with them being able to rotate all their players from the bench and rest some legs before their last match tomorrow.
When they last competed in 2009, Chinese Taipei finished in 6th and beat India along the way. They will be hoping for a repeat tomorrow.
Their coach Goh Seck Tuck looked ahead to the match saying, “India are a lot taller than Japan ad Brunei so we need to play a faster game and not rely on height tomorrow. Our shooting will be critical. We came into this with the aim of upsetting as many teams as we could. I am very happy with our position now but we want to end on a win tomorrow.”
Sae Nakatani of Japan said, “We didn’t shoot well today and there was a lot of support in the crowds for Chinese Taipei which seemed to rattle our players and generate some nerves. We made a lot of small errors and that didn’t help us in the game.
“Obviously, we were expecting that we would play India in our next game, because we hoped to win. We think Brunei has a similar playing style to Chinese Taipei so we have to analyse our strengths and weaknesses from today’s game and improve in time for tomorrow’s game.”
SINGAPORE VS MALAYSIA
The match of the day for the 2000-strong crowd was the causeway clash between Singapore and Malaysia for a place in the Grand Final and also a place in the 2015 World Cup.
The action did not disappoint as both teams played with passion and determination. Knowing what was at stake, it was an expected nervous start on both sides, but Singapore were the first to settle and drew first blood with a 15-11 after the first quarter.
Working well at both ends of the court the familiar pairing of Lin Qingyi and Premila Hirubalan did their best to shut out Malaysia’s shooting weapon of Norashikin and did upset her rhythm to good effect. At the other end Charmaine Soh (GS) and Chen Huifen (GA) linked with the midcourt and capitalised on their chances. Kimberly Lim had a strong game once again in what is only her 5th cap for the hosts.
Malaysia were the stronger of the two sides at the start of the second half and despite some strong defending by Singapore to create multiple turnovers, Malaysia took the third quarter (12-14) but the team in red went into the final period with a six goal cushion (38-32).
There was no relaxing for either side though in the closing stages as the physical contest continued. The score line was so tight that the only player switch of the entire match fro Singapore was the switching of Qingyi and Hirubalan in their defensive roles in the final quarter. For Malaysia, they also made only one change throughout the match (Fazira Mesnan came on at WD in second quarter).
Singapore had done enough though to take the match 46-39 and the first place in the Asian Championships FINAL. With it, their place in the World Cup is also secured.
Singapore Captain Lin Qingyi said, “We started strongly with two consistent quarters. Maybe it was a bit of miscommunication in the third quarter where our form dipped a little but we can look back at our performance, understand what happened and make sure we don’t do it tomorrow.”
Coach Ruth Aitken added, “The stakes were high today so everyone was naturally anxious about the game. The teams didn’t give an inch, they both wanted it so much and all credit to Malaysia who played a very good game. We have the fitness to do well tomorrow; we will give it everything and hope to finish on a flourish. For us now, it’s all about our recovery so we are ready to go tomorrow.”
Malaysian Captains, Nurul Adha Abu Bakar was very disappointed but managed to share some thoughts, saying, “At half time, I made sure I motivated my team members by saying that there’s is still a lot of time, we can do this, we can still win this game. I just had to keep motivating my team and make sure they had a fighting spirit in this game. This was a very emotional game for all of us. The crowd was strong and cheering loudly for both Singapore and us. I really wanted to play this game. This was the first time my mother had come to see me play outside Malaysia.”
SRI LANKA VS HONG KONG
The second semi-final was another cracking display of Asian netball at its best with Sri Lanka and Hong Kong giving everything to make it to the final with Singapore.
With a 15-9 lead after the first quarter, the expectation was that the 2009 Asian Champions would push ahead with ease. But Hong Kong had other ideas and took the second period 9-14 to close the half with just one point in it (24-23).
The third quarter kept the high intensity and with Sri Lanka sitting 37-34. But it all changed in the fourth with Sri Lanka stepping things up a gear and Hong Kong unable to match the tempo as errors crept in and confidence lowered. The final quarter didn’t reflect the tension and excitement of the game but Sri Lanka’s composure and never-give-up attitude all week gave them the edge they needed. They took the game 57-42 and are now where they wanted to be – in another Asian Championship final and have played themselves into another appearance at a World Cup.
Hong Kong Captain Rachael Wilcock, gave her rationale for the dip at the final hurdle. She said, “The final quarter just showed our lack of experience at international netball. This is the first time most of us have competed at this level. We put too much pressure on ourselves and let unforced errors creep in. But we can take confidence from the performance into our match with Malaysia tomorrow. We know we can compete with these top teams and we will go back to the drawing board to take on a different team with a different game plan.”
Sri Lankan Captain Shashika Samarasinghe was clearly delighted to have made the final. She said, “Hong Kong targeted Tharjini Sivalingam but once we realised this we adjusted our game and played our own style of netball. We have one target tomorrow and that is to beat Singapore. In the last couple of years we haven’t had our experienced players in the side but a couple of senior players have returned to the team so we’re better placed to control the game. Last time we lost to Singapore in Sri Lanka by one goal so we have a target to beat them here in Singapore. Tomorrow will be a very hard game because they will have a loud and vocal home crowd but we will focus on concentrating on our game. I am hoping for a big crowd of supporters from Sri Lanka to cheer us on.”
VIETNAM VS MYANMAR (9/10th playoff)
The final match of the day was the final match of the competition for Vietnam and Myanmar as they played out for 9th and 10th placing.
Both teams were debutants in the competition and developed their netball skills and understanding immensely as the week progressed. They faced some tough, experienced opposition but picked themselves up each time and it was Myanmar who ended with a first win in international netball and a confident performance with a 26-61 score line.
Both teams can take many learning’s from the week.
Myanmar Coach, Cheng Li Li of Singapore was delighted with the result today. She said, “We ended the season perfectly with a win today. They progressed with every game. They watched and they learned and they improved.”
Looking to the future of netball in Myanmar she explained, “The girls will return home and take a short break then they go straight into full time training until SEA Games. They have put a lot of money into sport and top coaches and this is their focus from now on.”
Vietnam Captain, Phan Thi Huynh Thuy Duong summarized the whole experience saying, “My favourite thing has been making new friends with the other netballing nations and learning from them as well. Throughout the competition we can see that we have a lack of stamina and need to improve our passing so we’ll try and focus on improving those things when we get back home. I’m looking forward to watching the Singapore versus Sri Lanka final tomorrow.”
The remaining standings will be settled tomorrow with matches beginning at 10am at the OCBC Arena and the grand final between Singapore and Sri Lanka taking place at 4pm.
RESULTS
13 SEPT:
Match 21: INDIA 58-56 BRUNEI (HT 22-21) (After Extra Time)
Match 22: CHINESE TAIPEI 54-24 JAPAN (HT 25-10)
Match 23: SINGAPORE 46-39 MALAYSIA (HT 26-18)
Match 24: SRI LANKA 57-42 HONG KONG (HT 24-23)
Match 25: VIETNAM 26-61 MYANMAR (HT 14-31)
11 SEPT:
Match 17: CHINESE TAIPEI 60-21 MYANMAR (HT 28-14)
Match 18: JAPAN 54-23 VIETNAM (HT 22-11)
Match 19: SRI LANKA 66-62 MALAYSIA (HT 33-31)
Match 20: SINGAPORE 20-73 INDIA (HT 13-28)
10 SEPT:
Match 13: MALAYSIA 87-20 MYANMAR (HT 43-11)
Match 14: VIETNAM 32-56 INDIA (HT 14-28)
Match 15: BRUNEI 25-78 SRI LANKA (HT 9-40)
Match 16: SINGAPORE 63-28 HONG KONG (HT 28-17)
09 SEPT:
Match 9: MYANMAR 11-109 SRI LANKA (HT 6-45)
Match 10: HONG KONG 80-17 VIETNAM (HT 43-9)
Match 11: BRUNEI 33-56 CHINESE TAIPEI (HT 17-35)
Match 12: INDIA 60-52 JAPAN (HT 31-25)
08 SEPT:
Match 5: MYANMAR 32-60 BRUNEI (HT 19-26)
Match 6: JAPAN 24-66 HONG KONG (HT 10-29)
Match 7: CHINESE TAIPEI 35-63 MALAYSIA (HT 20-36)
Match 8: VIETNAM 8-84 SINGAPORE (HT 2-46)
07 SEPT:
Match 1: SINGAPORE 67-13 JAPAN (HT 38-7)
Match 2: MALAYSIA 79-15 BRUNEI (HT 49-4)
Match 3: HONG KONG 84-17 INDIA (HT 39-7)
Match 4: SRI LANKA 57-36 CHINESE TAIPEI (HT 29-22)
FIXTURES
|
Finals |
||||||
|
14-Sep |
26 |
7th vs 8th |
10.00am |
Brunei |
vs |
Japan |
|
Sunday |
27 |
5th vs 6th |
12.00pm |
India |
Vs |
Chinese Taipei |
|
|
28 |
3rd vs 4th |
2.00pm |
Malaysia |
vs |
Hong Kong |
|
|
29 |
1st vs 2nd |
4.00pm |
Singapore |
vs |
Sri Lanka |
|
|
|
ALL |
5.30pm |
Closing Ceremony & Prize Presentation |
||
World Rankings (as of 25-08-14)
Singapore – 18
Malaysia – 20
Sri Lanka – 24
Hong Kong – 25
All other competing nations are currently unranked.
