After a bright start that had Uganda’s She-Cranes gasping for air, the Malawi Queens yesterday gave away a six-basket lead to go down 51-43 in the semi-final of the Africa Netball Championship in Swakopmnd, Namibia.
Malawi face Zimbabwe’s Gems in a third-place match today while the continent’s top-ranked sides South Africa’s Spar Proteas and Uganda’s She Cranes, clash in the final.
This was after South Africa beat Zimbabwe in the other semi-final earlier on.
In a match monitored on SuperSport television, Malawi were in cruise control in the first quarter with their telling passes and short bursts to lead 8-14 with goal attacker Ethel Ng’ambi and shooter Tendai Madamba meshing potently.
But the Queens started losing the plot gradually in the second quarter, especially after the injury of workhorse wing attacker Thandi Galeta.
Nevert-heless, it was a quarter that ebbed and flowed with end-to-end stuff as they went into recess tied at 23-all.
Come the third quarter, the East Africans led by their gangling England-based shooter Mary Cholhok, imposed themselves totally.
Cholhok, who was kept under lock and key by Queens’ goalkeeper Shabel Bengo in the first quarter, converted baskets with ease as she stung like a bee.
Uganda led 39-32 in the third quarter and wrapped it up in the last quarter to underline their dominance on the once mighty Queens.
Queens captain Towera Vinkhumbo-Nyirenda, who was an unused substitute, said they started well, especially in the first quarter “which we dominated”.
“But we lost consistency and made some mistakes later on which our counterparts capitalised on. We’ll now switch focus to the Zimbabwe game,” she said.
Uganda captain Irene Eyaru described the match as “tense and tight, but we fought on to the end”.
