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Queens lose to Australia, Jamaica

Queen's Mwawi (L) in full flight during a previous match
Queen’s Mwawi (L) in full flight during a previous match

Malawi netball Queens made a struggling start to their 2013 Fast5 Netball World Series on Friday morning when they lost 42-37 to Australia in New Zealand.

Malawi captain Caroline Mtukule Ngwira, in a post-match interview after the loss to Australia, fired the warning shots to Jamaica.

“We were a bit slugging [against Australia] in the third-quarter, when we played our power play. I think we will catch up in the next game against Jamaica; we are not yet done. We are still coming,” Ngwira told Sky Sports in the game broadcast through SuperSport 5 television channel.

Played in the carnival atmosphere of Vector Arena, Malawi scored first through Takondwa Lwazi followed by Mwawi Kumwenda’s conversions in the event involving the world’s top six netball teams including England, New Zealand and South Africa.

Eventually, the Australians recovered to show their consistency. Malawi misplaced some passes in the attacking third and Kumwenda twice missed from range.

In the second-quarter, Australia ran away with it, at one point of the six-minute quarter, opening a 14-8 lead. The Australians continued to stretch ahead. In this quarter, Kumwenda missed only one of her four three-pointer attempts.

Malawi elected to play their power play in the third period in which Jessica Mazengela showed precision and composure to sink her shots from range, thereby giving more options in attack.

Nonetheless, the Queens finished weakly to trail 36-27 before Australia exacted their revenge on the Africa number one team, Malawi, who beat them in last year’s edition of the tournament for a fifth place play-off.

Australia stepped on the court after earlier thrashing England 40-19.

In other matches, New Zealand beat Jamaica 43-22 whereas South Africa had an opening 35-28 loss to Jamaica.

As we went to press, reports had just come in that the Queens had lost 37-35 against Jamaica in Auckland City.

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