Hot conditions and blazing scores!

(Report by Tony Lim and YK Choo)

Never mind the heat, good bowlers are made of better stuff and it shows in their resilience to combat the air conditioning system to register high games and concentrating the task at hand. “It’s just mind over matter “as one coach said. How true can that statement be when 15 of the 20 finalist average above the 200 mark.

Indeed, if the scores are a yardstick of measurement and the averages are acting as a barometer, then the coming Sukma will be a very high scoring event but yet demanding all the knowledge and expertise of lane conditioning and ball selections to match up to the lanes.

Muhd Aizudeen Mustaqim stakes his claim for the boys open title when he scorched the lanes for an amazing 223 average over 14 games played in 2 blocks in the Melaka Leg of the National Junior Tenpin Bowling Circuit. Muhd Afnan Shafiq Jaafar of Pahang made came as a surprise to move into second spot with a 216 average to ensure a bye in the playoffs while Ahmad Aidil bin Hj Abdul Ismail, leader in the 1st block with a 230 average dropped back to 4th placing to finish with a 214 average.

The Girls Open category saw Fatin Haswani binti Hassan of Penang staving off a strong challenge from Nur Syamimi Supardi of Perak to take the top seed going into the finals playoff. In fact the top 2 seeds will automatically have a bye in the 1st round of the playoff and will face the winners in the 1st round playoffs.

Fatin Haswani who had a 218 average in the 1st block managed to keep her composure throughout the 6 games in the second block by sparing when she could not strike to keep her game plan in place. But when the momentum got going, she utilized the strikes to her full advantage posting scores of 213, 249, 180 and 257 in the last 4 games to remain as the top seed.

Nur Syamimi went on the offensive at the start to try and narrow the deficit, registering scores of 244, 259, 174, 220, 233 and 224 for a total of 1354 pinfalls to have the highest average of 225 in the second block. That effort earned her the second seed and a bye in the finals.

Natasha Roslan of Selangor also had the same idea as Syamimi but the gap was just too far for her to catch up and she had to settle for 3rd placing with a total of 2886 pinfalls for a 206 average. An interesting point to look at is that with most of the Sukma bound trainees in the fray, the competition has made the bowlers produce their best as reflected on the scores with the top 5 girls averaging above 200.

Even in the boys division, 25 bowlers in the field had average above the 200 mark and in the second block where only the top 8 made the cut, 15 bowlers had average above the 200 mark. This is a good indication that all the state teams involved in the Sukma are serious about their preparations and their quest for gold medals is realistic.