The Gauteng Fireballs made it two out of two wins today after beating the Free State Crinums 39-34. Both teams went into this game with boosted confidence following their opening games victory and it was quite evident in the first quarter when the score was 9 all. Fireballs Goalkeeper- Juzelri Garbers was forced off the field three minutes into the game and was replaced by Melanie De Lange but that did not hinder the Fireballs performance as they went into the half time break with a 21-18 lead.
The Gauteng side gave away so many balls in the shooting circle in the beginning of the third quarter but Tshinakaho Mdau’s intercepts, Talja Venter’s accurate shooting and Bongiwe Msomi’s player of the match performance contributed immensely to the team’s overall success.
Fireballs coach- Dumisani Chauke said it was vital for the team to correct their mistakes and also went on to say ‘’We watched ourselves and we picked up on the stuff we can improve on. Today we focused on making sure that we start and finish strong, taking each centre pass at a time and each quarter at a time which will give us the end result’’.
Crinums coach- Burta du Kock spoke about how her side needs to move on from this defeat: ‘’This is the beginning of the marathon, so we will go home and go back to the drawing board. I just think that the players need to explore netball, must capitalize on each and every ball, protect the ball and at the end of the day they need to enjoy and embrace netball.’’
In Division B, the Mpumalanga Sunbirds and the Northern Cape Diamonds got their 2020 TNL campaign underway today. It was a very tightly contested match between the two teams, but the Sunbirds came out victorious with a 35-30 win. Last year the Mpumalanga team only won three of their eight matches and the Diamonds lost all their games. The Sunbirds and the Diamonds will both be in action again tomorrow afternoon against the Aloes and Baobabs respectively.
Meanwhile, it was another bad day at the office for the North West Flames as they suffered their second successive defeat against the Western Cape Stings following a 27-39 defeat. However- Stings coach- Annelie Lucas was all smiles after their first win. ‘’I think the girls worked hard for it, they were hungry for a win today especially after yesterday’s loss,’’ said Lucas after the game.
