Cape Town – The second day of the 2019 Africa Netball Cup started off with Lesotho taking on Kenya. Both teams lost their opening matches the previous day against South Africa and Malawi respectively. It was Kenya that fired the first shot of the match when they went two points clear within the first minute of the match. They played like a team that wanted to redeem themselves from the first day.
Lesotho’s handling errors and height restrictions also worked against them as this gave Kenya an advantage over them. Kenya at the end of the first quarter were leading 17 -6. The beginning of the second quarter saw them continuing where they left off. Towards the end of the second quarter Lesotho took the game to Kenya and converted their three chances in as many minutes even though it was a little too late. At half time, the score was 11 – 35 to Kenya. At the end of it all, Kenya took the game 74 – 24.
South Africa took to centre court against Zimbabwe in the second match of the day. South Africa played and won their two games on the opening day and went into the second day, Zimbabwe on the other end had not played a single game before today after their forfeited their opening against Uganda.
The clash was bound to be a fierce one, on and off the court. The fans on the stands were split amongst the two, Zimbabwe seems to have pulled a decent crowd, with the majority of those on the stands supporting the SPAR Proteas.
Zimbabwe drew first blood and converted the first chance created however their South African counter parts made sure that the lead was short lived. South Africa built up on that momentum and took an early lead and made sure that they control and dictate the pace. The combinations of the South African team seemed to have been coming together nicely as they stretched their lead by nine points and maintained it for the better part of the quarter. At the end of the first quarter, it was the SPAR Proteas who enjoyed a comfortable 10 point lead 21 -11.
At the start of the second quarter, South Africa continued where they left off and enjoyed a 16 point lead during this quarter. At half time, South Africa were comfortably leading 39 -18. The start of the third quarter saw the SA coaching duo making quite a few changes with five players coming off the bench to make the playing seven.
Zimbabwe took the third quarter converting 12 chances compared to South Africa’s 10. At the end of Q3, it was South Africa who led 49 -30. The start of the last was very crucial as South Africa wanted to cement their lead and make it three out of three, the result was South Africa 69 against Zimbabwe’s 39.
Match number seven saw Uganda take on Zambia. Uganda did not play their opening match the previous day because of Zimbabwe’s no show and Zambia had won their opening match against Kenya. The two teams went off at each other and Uganda went to the break leading 30 – 19 against Zambia. The game ended with Uganda winning 67 -33.
The last match of the day was Malawi who lost against South Africa take on Kenya who also lost their match against Zambia. The Kenyans played their second game of the day after beating Lesotho earlier.
Malawi made their intentions very clear from the onset and went five up within the first three minutes of the game with no reply from Kenya. Of the two sides, Malawi was very dominating and dictated the pace of the game from the first whistle and made sure they took the lead 19 – 4 at the end of the first quarter.
During the second quarter, Malawi managed to convert 19of their chances as compared to Kenya’s 14. The half time score saw Malawi take the lead 38 -18. In the third quarter, Malawi extended their leading by almost 23 points for most of the quarter.
Malawi held on to their lead right until the end and won the game 72 -34.
Sunday’s fixtures:
08:00 – Lesotho vs Uganda
10:00 – Zimbabwe vs Kenya
12:00 – Zambia vs Malawi
14:00 – South Africa vs Uganda
16:00 Lesotho vs Zimbabwe
