Men’s quartet look good to reach last eight in IBF World Cup

PETALING JAYA: The men’s team continued their fine performance to stay on course to reach the quarter-finals of the IBF World Cup.

The quartet of Tun Ameerul Hakim Tun Hasnul Azam, Rafiq Ismail, Timmy Tan and Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek beat the United States (2-1), Germany (2-1), and hosts Australia (2-0) in their round-robin matches to collect nine points at the Suncity Tenpin Bowl in Queensland, Australia, yesterday.

Malaysia’s only blemish came when they lost to Singapore (0-2).

Overall, the team did well and remain top of the 14-team standings with a total of 27 points, three ahead of closest challengers Germany on 24.

They had claimed wins over the United Arab Emirates (2-1), Canada (2-0), Bermuda (2-0), Sweden (2-0), Puerto Rico (2-0) and New Zealand (2-0) but lost (0-2) to the Czech Republic on Thursday to obtain 18 points.

The top eight teams will qualify for the quarter-finals.

Syafiq was pleased with the team’s performances as they continued where they left off on the first day of the team event.

“The team played well today (yesterday) and the win over the US gave us more confidence. So far, we have only lost two out of 11 matches overall. We just need to keep focusing on what we have to do after this,” said Syafiq.

Ameerul cited good communication between the team members and coaches as one of the reasons for their impressive displays so far.

“The field is quite tough but thank God, we managed to bowl well. The lanes are very challenging because the transition is so quick and tricky. Despite this, we managed to beat the US as we got better breaks. There was great communication between us and our coaches, which helped us,” said Ameerul.

The women’s team managed to win two of their three matches against the Philippines (2-0) and New Zealand (2-0) but lost to Sweden (0-2) to gain six points.

The team comprising Sin Li Jane, Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman, Natasha Roslan and Esther Cheah have work to do to reach the last four as they sit fifth in the eightteam standings with 12 points.

Only the top four will make the cut for the semi-finals.the team will bowl against the US, Singapore, Germany and Australia next.