By Correspondent.
Belleville, Cape Town. (News of The South)- It was expected to be tight and the game lived up to be billing with the secures tied up at one point but the higher ranked Zimbabwe managed to ouc their northern counterparts Zambia 57-51 at the Bellville Velodrome, which is hosting the Africa netball cup 2019.
The first quarter started off with both teams exchanging points before Zimbabwe pulled ahead only for Zambia to cam back and tie the scores at 9 all before some magnificent handling allowed the Gems to close the quarter at 14-13.
The second quarter started off with the Gems asserting the dominance on the match and they would eventually pulled ahead with a gap of 10 scores as they went into halftime.
The third quarter started off with Zambia piling the pressure looking for a way back into the match but The Gems were resolute in defence until an unfortunate injury to goal shooter Joice Takaidza thereated to derail the progress and the coach made time replacements to keep the impetus as Lorraine Manjoro was introduced at center and Linda Nkorongo came in for the injured Joice and the team pushed on to end the quarter with a healthy lead.
In the final quarter it was all about consolidation and game management and the Gems made sure there was breathing ground between them and Zambia. Joice latter shook off the injury and came back to a rapturous applause as Zimbabwes favorite Gem showed that she was fir enough to continue and they manged to kill off the game as a contest 57-51 at the end.
Coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki was elated with the way the team handled pressure and is looking for more aged of the final game tomorrow against Malawi.
” we knew this was going to be a tough game but we made sure we were always ahead as it is always difficult to chase games and we are hoping that tomorrow we can show this kind of resolve and challenge Malawi.”
A win against Malawi tomorrow will guarantee Zimbabwe a podium position.
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