Malaysia thrash rivals to enter semis

MALAYSIA are through to the semifinals of the Sea Games netball competition after obliterating the Philippines 96-11 in their last match of the preliminaries at Juara Stadium yesterday.

Tracey Robinson’s team were far too strong for the Philippines with the latter unable to penetrate Malaysia’s defence with massive turnovers along the way.

The Australian coach rested most of her main players including captain Nur Syafazliyana Mohd Ali and goal shoot An Najwa Azizan as she felt the three-day stretch had been quite taxing on the girls despite their rest day on Thursday.

“What I wanted to do is to give some of the players a rest because it’s been a hard three days and even though the rest day was yesterday (Thursday), it takes a toll on the body.”

“I wanted Karishma (S. Loganathan) to get in form and she shot beautifully today and that’s the type of shooter she is.”

In the semi-finals, Malaysia are set to face Brunei as they booked their berth with a run that saw the ladies win all four matches against Thailand (75-30), Brunei (64-27) and Singapore (50-37).

However, Tracey wants the ladies to take it one match at a time.

“I don’t assume anything and I’m going to leave you guys now to watch that game (Thailand vs Singapore) and have a look at both teams to put our plan forward.”

The Philippines ended their Sea Games campaign fifth out of five countries after losing all their matches. Farah Azharie