Tigresses, Glass Bank through to Rainbow semis
Tigresses and Glass Bank Sisters have made it into semi-finals of the Rainbow Paints Top Six Netball Series after emerging as the best two from the three-team Group B qualifiers at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC) on Saturday.
Tigresses topped the qualifiers’ table with six points after their convincing 54-10 and 45-20 victories over Glass Bank Sisters and Airwing Sisters respectively. Glass Bank finished second on three points after steadying their ship with a lottery 22-21 win over Airwing Sisters.
The two teams will now wait for the Group A qualifiers involving defending champions Diamonds, MTL Queens and Woget Stars to know their opponents in the last four encounters to be held later this month.
The second qualifiers have delayed because Diamonds and MTL Queens have contributed key players to the Malawi Queens who are in New Zealand.
But Tigresses had a complete squad to earn easy victories over their perennial inferiors on Saturday. With the dropped Malawi Queens star Sindi Simutowe rarely missing the target in the shooting circle, Beatrice Mpinganjira making crispy passes from the wings and Grace Mwafulirwa-Mhango tightening security at the back, it was impossible for Glass Bank and Airwing to escape Tigresses’ claws.
Against Glass Bank Sisters, Tigresses saw their victory handy just after the first-quarter that ended 22-2. But spectators made conclusions on the outcome of the match after the Charles Mhango-coached side scored 13 baskets in the second-quarter while letting in a single basket.
“We already knew about our victories even before we got into the netball court but we wanted to know by what score margins we were going to earn our wins,” said Mhango.
After the Rainbow Paints semi-final qualifiers on Saturday, BYC became the setting for OG Issa League encounters that saw Woget Stars, Gerald Tasaukadala and Prison Sisters beating Chilomoni Sisters, Chitakale Sisters and Shiaella Queens 45-34, 49-31 and 56-30 respectively.
