KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia hammered winless Fiji 12-0 for their third win in the round two of the women’s World League at the Major Dhyanchand National Stadium in New Delhi yesterday.

It was the biggest win for the team in international tournament in recent years.

Malaysia now have nine points from four matches. They beat Russia (3-1) and Kazakhstan (3-1) but lost to India (3-0). They are in second spot in the six-team competition behind India.

The Malaysians’ last match is against top seeds Japan tomorrow. They need to win as only the top two qualify for the World League semi-finals in June or July.

Skipper Nadia Abdul Rahman (11th, 40th and 68th) and Siti Noor Amarina Ruhani (15th, 33rd, 69th) scored a hat-trick each against Fiji, ranked a lowly 59th in the world compared to Malaysia’s No. 22 ranking.

Nor Azlin Sumantri (15th and 33rd), Fazilla Sylvester Silin (6th and 58th), Siti Rahmah Othman (43rd) and Juliani Mohd Din (53rd) contributed the other goals.

National coach Mohd Nasihin Nubli was pleased with the big win.

“There is a marked improvement in the strikers’ performance after missing a number of chances in the last two matches against India and Kazakhstan,” said the former international.

“It was a good morale boosting win ahead of the crucial match against Japan on Sunday. We have never beaten Japan before but there’s always a first time. We beat world No. 20 Russia and we hope to create another upset,” added Nasihin in a telephone interview.

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