The Eastern Cape Comets got the Telkom Netball League fourth leg underway with a much needed 43-36 victory over the Kingdom Queens. A dominant first half powered the Comets to a ten-goal lead at half-time. Queens coach- Precious Mthembu made two defensive changes, moving Thulisile Maduna to Goal Attack and introducing Simphiwe Mhlanga on Goal Defense. Maduna and Mhlanga were effective at the back which helped bring the margin down to just four goals in the third quarter. The Comets found their rhythm again in the last quarter and extended their lead to win the match and move within the top four on the division two log standings.
A packed Heartfelt Arena was already on standby to witness the second match of the day which was between the Golden Fireballs and the Gauteng Jaguars. The Five-time champions set up a 53-39 win following a sixty minutes commanding performance. Jaguars Goal Defense- Jamie van Wyk played a starring role with eleven intercepts and walked away with the player of the match accolade. The Fireballs’ pass completion lied on sixty seven percent following multiple erroneous passes which also had a negative impact on the score-line.
Fireballs and SPAR Proteas captain- Bongiwe Msomi says the entire team just didn’t show up against the defending champions, ‘’Today, we have to give credit to the Jaguars. Everything literally didn’t go our way today and we are very much of an honest team. We know that today was not much of a great performance from each and every single one of us. So, we just have to look at how we come out tomorrow and keep our heads up’’.
Another scintillating match between the Mpumalanga Sunbirds and the Limpopo Baobabs wrapped up the day in Pretoria. The Baobabs managed to avenge themselves with a 38-35 win after losing to the Sunbirds on the 20th of May. It was anybody’s game at half-time when the score was twenty all but it was all to play for in the fourth quarter especially in the last six minutes of the game. The Sunbirds missed two crucial shots which the Baobabs were able to capitalize on and secured a three goal win.
