Draw gives Malaysia psychological edge

SINGAPORE — The final result might have shown that both teams were equally matched, but jubilant scenes from Malaysia’s players after their 35-35 draw with hosts Singapore suggest they could have a crucial psychological edge over their arch-rivals in the battle for the netball gold medal at the 28th SEA Games.

Reigning Asian champions Singapore, who are strong favourites to win the netball gold medal, squandered a 30-24 third-quarter lead with a final 15 minutes to forget.

Sloppy play, including several mis-timed passes and a gutsy fightback from the Malaysians saw the visitors score 11 times in the final quarter at the OCBC Arena Hall 1 yesterday.

With just three games to go until the gold-medal match, Malaysia’s captain Yap Suo Kuen said the game against Singapore would give them a huge psychological advantage if both sides met again in the final on Sunday.

After a disappointing third-place finish at last year’s Asian Championships, Malaysia’s national netball team are under huge pressure to succeed this time, after the country’s National Sports Council’s directory-general Ahmad Shapawi Ismail said they needed to win the gold medal to “justify the need and importance of netball to be contested at the 2017 SEA Games” in Kuala Lumpur.

“We went into the match wanting to show Singapore that we are also a good team, and remind them again that while this is Singapore’s home ground, we are the defending champions,” said Yap, who at 29 is the most senior member of her team.

“Drawing the game like that showed us that anything is possible, and this is an important psychological advantage for us for the rest of the tournament, because we have lost to Singapore for many years, and now, it seems like we can finally break that losing spell (since 2003).”

The result means Malaysia and Singapore are joint leaders of the six-team round-robin format competition, with five points after three games each, ahead of third-placed Thailand, who have four points. But Malaysia lead with a superior goal difference.

The top four teams will advance into the semi-finals.

Singapore face Philippines today and Myanmar tomorrow, and though defender Premila Hirubalan — who yesterday became the second player in Singapore’s netball history to have achieved 100 international caps, after former captain Jean Ng — was disappointed with her team’s performance, she refused to concede the gold.

“We just crumbled in the final quarter, and nerves got the better of several of us, especially the goal-shooters, but we will bounce back from this and be even hungrier now,” said Premila, who was part of the Singapore team that lost the 2001 SEA Games final to then-hosts Malaysia.

“We have to build up our mental strength and be consistent throughout all 60 minutes of every game — something we have not achieved in this tournament. We now also know Malaysia’s strengths and weaknesses. They managed to slow us down, and we must counter that.”

Singapore’s head coach Ruth Aitken added: “I have absolute faith in my players to bounce back, and my job is to pick them up again. We will go back to watch videos of the Malaysian team and see how we can fight them again.”

Today’s fixtures at the OCBC Arena Hall 1:

1.30pm — Myanmar v Thailand

3.30pm — Brunei v Malaysia

7pm — Singapore v Philippines