Singapore surprise K. Mishalenee helps hosts reach Nations Cup netball final

SINGAPORE – Up against an unbeaten United Arab Emirates side and a must-win task to qualify for the Mirxes Nations Cup final, Singapore netball coach Annette Bishop sprung a surprise by handing goalkeeper K. Mishalenee her first start of the tournament.

It turned out to be a masterstroke, as the 22-year-old helped keep a tight lid on world No. 21 UAE for the 25th-ranked hosts to romp to a 68-47 win at the OCBC Arena Hall 1 on Sept 6.

The victory put them through to the final against Kenya on Sept 7 (3pm). The Africans topped the six-team standings after the round-robin games, while Singapore were second.

With the top three teams all recording four wins and a loss, the UAE finished third on goal difference and will take on fourth-ranked Ireland in the third-place play-off (1pm), while Singapore A and Canada will square off at 11am to avoid the wooden spoon.

Bishop said: “We have 12 players whom we have confidence in to make changes. It’s not just about the same seven starters. The great beauty is they all bring something different, so we can run a change like that.

“The depth is right across the squad. We talk about the 12 who are here but there’s also the Singapore A side and the depth that’s coming through and that’s what we need to keep going.”

Defending champions Singapore found themselves under the cosh after a 49-36 defeat by world No. 30 Kenya on Sept 3. However, their fate was still in their hands, as the UAE beat Kenya 44-37 a day earlier.

Bishop then made the bold move to start the 1.83m Mishalenee alongside Jamie Lim (46 caps, 1.8m) instead of fielding the more experienced but shorter Reena Divya (38 caps, 1.76m) or Sindhu Nair (53 caps, 1.73m) against a UAE side that included 1.85m goal shooter Charlie Preston.

It paid off from the start as Singapore restricted the visitors – who were missing injured wing attack Sophie Hankin – to just nine points in the opening quarter as they established a 19-9 lead and never looked back.

Mishalenee, who earned her 18th cap, said: “I wasn’t surprised when I found out this morning that I would be starting because we are told to mentally prepare ourselves to be ready to take the court at all times, regardless whether we start or not. I just told myself to get more balls.

“We learn to adapt to the opponents’ bodies, don’t get stuck, try different things and keep changing things up and adapt to the different balls coming into the circle.”

Singapore kept their foot on the pedal throughout the match, applying solid pressure across the court to induce unforced errors and turnovers.

They were also hungry in the attacking end, with goal shooter Lee Pei Shan hustling for rebounds and Amandeep Kaur converting 40 of 43 shots.

The lead grew to 38-22 at half-time, and the hosts did not let up until the final whistle, expanding their lead through every quarter until they completed the 21-point blowout.

Co-captain and wing attack Toh Kai Wei said: “We haven’t played our own game for the past few matches and we wanted one good performance that we feel good and satisfied about.

“We weren’t really thinking about the pressure of the must-win situation, and today we managed to accomplish that. All the long drives, short and hard drives, in defence and attack, I felt we did great in these areas and we hope to take this form to the final.”

Bishop added: “For the final, we’ve looked at the video and we know what we did wrong against Kenya. They play a good-old African style with natural flair as they hang on to the ball. We just need to make sure we are very careful with our passes and deny their shooters a lot of the ball.”

The UAE team will have to regroup after missing out on the final despite starting their campaign with a perfect four wins.

Coach Deborah Jones said: “It’s tough, we fought really hard in parts, but the error count was higher... than throughout the whole tournament. Inconsistency was the thing that killed us.

“It’s been a great experience for us and we now go up against (22nd-ranked) Ireland, and another win would be good for us in terms of ranking points.”