The Eastern Cape Aloes powered to the finals following an impressive 54-40 victory against the Western Cape Tornados in the first division two semi-final this morning at the Heartfelt Arena in Pretoria. The Aloes held a narrow 22-20 lead at half-time but switched gears to end the third quarter with a six-goal lead. Tornados coach- Danlee Mathews made two mid-court changes in the final quarter, introducing Amber Coraizen on Centre and putting Heidi Kuzatjike back on Wing Defense in the hope of turning things around but the Aloes continued to gain the ascendancy that awarded them an emphatic win to set up a finals clash with the Mpumalanga Sunbirds.
Meanwhile, the Sunbirds qualified for their first ever final after beating the Limpopo Baobabs 46-41 in the second semi-final. The Sunbirds found their footing from the first whistle and led 12-8 in the first quarter but the Baobabs proved their mettle and levelled matters at half-time. The focus was on the battle between Sunbirds’ Goal keeper- Palesa Mbukwana as well as Baobabs Goal Shooter- Muhluri Hlatshwayo. Palesa neutralized Muhluri by denying her space to receive the ball and intercepting a plethora of forced feeds into Muhluri to get her third player of the match award.
Sunbirds captain- Maryke Coetzee says they will bask in this moment, ‘’Firstly, we just want to celebrate this win. We worked very hard in this game and I think if we just keep executing the goals that we set in this game, we can also do it in tomorrow’s game and it will pay off. We got a lot of instructions that we worked on yesterday and it worked very well on court today. It really means a lot to us, having qualified for our very first final’’.
In Division one, history was also made when the Golden Fireballs booked their spot in the final following a narrow 49-47 win against the Free State Crinums. The Crinums had a dominant first half, leading the first two quarters but the Fireballs’ resilience helped them to a thirty-seven all draw in the third quarter. The Crinums’ finals hopes slipped away after accumulating fifty-one penalties which presented the Fireballs with a lot of turnovers to finish off on a ninety-one goal percentage and a two goal victory.
The final match of the day went right down to the wire, sudden death was the decider and it went in favour of the Gauteng Jaguars who secured a 63-61 win against the Southern Stings. The Stings had a one goal lead in the first quarter but the Jaguars flipped the storyline to lead 24-23 at half-time. It was game on from the third quarter when the Stings staged a comeback to take a six goal lead however the Jaguars re-gained momentum to end the entire sixty minutes on fifty all. Extra time came into play with seven minutes set aside but the same script played out which forced the game to head into sudden death. This means the 2022 Telkom Netball League edition will see a division one Gauteng derby final on Sunday for the very first time.
Full results:
Aloes 54-40 Tornados
Sunbirds 46-41 Baobabs
Fireballs 49-47 Crinums
Jaguars 63-61 Stings
Saturday (18/06/2022) fixtures:
14:00|Div.1 5th/6th PLAY OFF- Flames vs Stars
16:00|Div.2 3rd/4th PLAY OFF- Baobabs vs Tornados
18:00|Div.1 3rd/4th PLAY OFF- Stings vs Crinums
20:00|Div.2 FINAL- Aloes vs Sunbirds
