BABY SPAR PROTEAS SECURE FINAL SPOT WITH CLEAN SWEEP RECORD
Baby SPAR Proteas came into match day five on a five-match winning streak and they started off the day with a match against neighbours Namibia who have won two of their three matches played to date.
Namibia enjoyed a rest day on Wednesday, and they would be the fresher of the two teams while Baby SPAR Proteas were high in confidence following their win against Malawi last night.
To date, South Africa has been the most consistent and tactically disciplined of all the teams and they continued on that trajectory as they worked tirelessly in the first quarter to clinch is 17 -4. Coach Mthembu had indicated that her players were taking straining due to a series of back-to-back games, and this was showing however the team soldiered on into the second quarter winning and ending the half leading 33 -9.
In the championship quarter, South Africa made a few substitutions to inject some fresh legs into the game. The defence of the Baby SPAR Proteas has remained very solid throughout the match restricting their opponents to scoring only eight goals per quarter in the last two – South African secured a well-merited victory beating Namibia 61 -25.
“We had a pretty slow start to the game; you could see that the girls really took a beating – the bodies and legs are growing tired. Good thing we have rest day tomorrow so we can recover the bodies. I am grateful that we had a good win as well and massive congratulations to Namibia for a good game. I hear people saying that we have already qualified for the Netball World Youth Cup 2025 in Gibraltar, and I am saying, we still one more game to play over the weekend, confirmations will only be made them, for now our feet are firmly on the ground,” said Baby SPAR Proteas Coach, Precious Mthembu post-match.
In the second match of the day, Zambia took on Malawi and it was Malawi that won the match 54 -35 . Later in the day, Namibia who lost their earlier match against South Africa played against Kenya and once again Namibia carried the tag of “Comeback Queens” very well after trailing the match for the better part of the game only for them to draw the match with the last second of the match. The match ended 44 – 44.
Friday, 22 March 2024 Fixtures
12:00 – Namibia v Zambia
14:00 – Kenya v Tanzania
16:00 – Malawi v Zimbabwe
