It’s the halfway mark of the netball world championship in Singapore and Australia coach Norma Plummer says she hasn’t seen any surprises from arch rival New Zealand.
Australia will play their quarter-final against Malawi at 7.45pm AEST while the Kiwis take on South Africa earlier in the day.
On opposite sides of the draw, the two teams are destined to meet in another major showdown on Sunday afternoon at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Plummer said the Silver Ferns are delivering exactly as she expected.
“I haven’t seen anything, they’ve got the same line-up they’ve had all along,” the long-time Diamonds mentor said.
“They’ve got a great back end, there’s no two ways about that and (Laura) Langman’s a great competitor and (Maria) Tutaia and (Irene) van Dyk have been doing all their shooting again.
“They’re a great top seven, what they put out on the court (is impressive), but I think we can match up everywhere on the court and I think we proved that going into New Zealand before we got here.
“We did match it up and at this stage it’s anyone’s game.”
The world’s best two teams have steamrolled their opponents in the pool games and are set to do the same to their quarter-final rivals.
Malawi finished fifth at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, but have struggled in Singapore following the second retirement of veteran Mary Waya.
The goal attack had retired but then returned to the team last month only to withdraw early from the squad’s training camp with reports of tension over the return of her and two other players.
Plummer said it was a big blow for the Africans, who were thrashed 65-33 by England in their pool game.
“They’ve lost Mary Waya and she was really the driving force,” she said.
Malawi has a promising young shooter in Mwayi Kumwenda, who lives in Australia and plays for Melbourne club Peninsula Waves in the Victorian Netball League.
© AAP 2012Recommend this story.
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