BIRMINGHAM: NG Tze Yong was not even on BAM's plans for the Commonwealth Games.
The world No 42 was only included for the assignment when world No 5 Lee Zii Jia dropped a bombshell by withdrawing from Malaysia's Commonwealth team.
But today, Tze Yong made sure Zii Jia's services was not missed when he reached the men's singles final in Birmingham.
The in-form Tze Yong, who stunned reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the quarter-finals on Saturday, overcame a first-game blemish to beat India's world No 13 K. Srikanth, 13-21, 21-19, 21-10 in the last four at the NEC Hall.
It was his second straight win over Srikanth, whom he beat in Malaysia's 3-1 win over India in the mixed team final earlier this week.
The Malaysian plays India's world No 10 Lakshya Sen, who defeated Singapore's Teh Jia Heng 21-10, 18-21, 21-16, for the gold medal.
"I am really happy for him and his coaches (Hendrawan and Wong Choong Hann). I said to the team before they left that I felt all players had the potential to win a medal," said BA of Malaysia (BAM) high-performance director Dr Tim Jones today.
"Tze Yong has shown real grit today (yesterday) to bounce back and win, especially when more pressure was on him.
"He is an intelligent young man. I believe he will continue to learn from these matches.
"What is exciting about him is that I can see things in his game that we could make big gains in, so he's a real prospect for the future.
"Now that Tze Yong has a medal in the bag, I want him to go all out tomorrow — no pressure, no fear — just the experience. Hopefully, he will bring home the gold. No matter what happens tomorrow I am very proud of him."
Except for the 2014 Glasgow edition, Malaysian shuttlers have dominated the men's singles event since the 1990 Auckland edition.
Former world No 1 Lee Chong Wei won the title at the previous Games in Gold Coast four years ago.