Sharpshooting Baard helps South Africa to their first win

With both Malawi and South Africa desperate to open their Fast5 accounts with a win on Day 2, a hard fought affair saw the South Africans ultimately claim a tight victory thanks to some sharp shooting from Charmaine Baard.

Malawi brought a new focus into the game, shooting almost all their shots from within the one-point zone through the game but despite the best efforts of tenacious Malawian centre, Takonda Lwazi, Malawia remain winless, falling 28-26.

Both Malawi and South Africa took their game back to basics in the opening quarter of the day, focusing on defence and getting close to the posts, resulting in a low scoring 3-3 quarter as they looked to find their rhythm.

Malawi got on top in the second quarter on the back of some dominant centre court play and crisp passing from Lwazi. Malawi stuck with what they know, with all 10 of their first half points coming from inside the one-point circle while South Africa’s shooters struggled from inside and outside the circle, shooting just 6/18 for the half.

South Africa took their powerplay in the third quarter and their shooters responded with Baard catching fire from two-point range, hitting four for the quarter to propel the South Africans to a nine-point lead heading into the final quarter.

“I think I just settled into the game aswell, I went on, a bit, well not just late in the game, and I think to settle, I have to settle a bit quicker and I just settled in the second half,” said of her shooting.

The Malawians looked to mount a comeback in the final quarter with their powerplay but some stout defence from South Africa held them at bay before a Jane Chimaliro six-point shot in the final 40 seconds clawed the Malawi side back into it, but South Africa hung tough to secure their first win of the tournament by two points.

Malawi looked on track to secure their first win of their tournament against the luckless South Africans with a strong reliance on basics and consistent one-point shooting, but a hot powerplay quarter from Charmaine Baard was the difference in the end as the South Africans claimed their first win, keeping Malawi still searching for a victory.

“We’ll try our best because it’s like we have lost four games so we are left with two games. The next two games we’ll try our best so that we can win both games,” Lwazi said following the match.

South Africa 28 defeated Malawi 26

Malawi shooting statistics 

South Africa shooting statistics