Namibia dominant against Kenya at Netball World Cup qualifiers

WINDHOEK, 15 AUG  – Namibia’s senior netball team, the Desert Jewels, beat Kenya 54-34 in their second game at the African Women’s Netball Championship currently underway in Zambia.
The team recovered from their opening match in the competition, where they were defeated 47-72 by Uganda on Tuesday.
In their second game of the competition on Wednesday afternoon, Namibia started the game very sloppily, giving away possession in the defence and had a lot of contact, which kept the Kenyan ladies in control as they were awarded penalties.
Despite the slow start however, the Namibian ladies recovered quickly to end the first quarter 18-13 in their favour.
The resilient Desert Jewels extended their lead in the second quarter to 13 points after scoring 15 points in that quarter compared to their opponents’ seven to end that quarter 33-20.
Namibia continued with their dominance as they extended their lead in the third quarter with 16 points for a 42-26 score-line in that quarter.
In the last quarter of the match, the Namibian team managed to score 12 more points, while their opponents added eight to their tally for a final score of 54-34.
National team coach Manuel ‘Mensie’ Tjivera told Nampa in an interview on Tuesday after losing their first game at the championship against Uganda that his team will stick to their game plan while competing at the African Women’s Netball Championship, which also acts as a World Cup qualifier.
“We lost the first game against Uganda who are a powerhouse in African netball, but I am proud of the girls because they fought until the end of the match and we did not lose by a huge margin,” he added.
He maintained that losing against Uganda was not a setback for his girls who are focused to do well in their upcoming matches.
“We are going to take it one game at a time and try to force other teams into errors. We will play our game and just remain positive because nobody knows what will happen with all the other teams at the competition,” Tjivera stressed.
The coach stated that they will not undermine any of their opponents as every team is in Zambia to fight for those two qualifying spots for the World Cup in 2019.
Six countries – (host) Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Uganda and Kenya are battling it out for ranking points as well as a place at next year’s World Cup. While Malawi, who already qualified for the world cup are competing at the event for match fitness as well as ranking points.
The Netball Association of Zambia is hosting the championship in Lusaka from 13 to 18 August 2018.
Namibia’s next match in the competition will be against Zimbabwe on Thursday afternoon at 14:00 local time.
NAMPA