Jamaica has held off a gallant Malawi, winning 63-62 to seal a place in the Netball World Cup semi-finals in Sydney, Denying the Malawi Queens the same opportunity.
The Malawi Queens brought the same drive and determination that saw them nearly topple New Zealand two days ago, the Queens surging from behind to within a goal’s margin of Jamaica during the third quarter on Friday and maintaining the pressure throughout the final term.
Jamaica led the Malawi Queens in first and second quarters by 19-13 and 19-16, However Malawi Queens won the last two quarters by 17-10 and 16-15.
As usual Mwai Kumwenda led the Squad netting 39 of her 41 goal shooting attempts and goal attacker Sindi Simutowe had a 100 percent shooting accuracy netting 23 out of her 23 attempts.
Simutowe, who received 26 centre pass, had seven goal assists while Kumwenda has one goal assist.
Bridget Kumwenda (Wing Attack), Takondwa Lwazi (centre), Grace Mwafulirwa (Wing Defender), Caroline Mtukule (Goal defender) and Goalkeeper Lauren Ngwira did put up a fight in all fairness but it was not to be.
The win means the Sunshine Girls are likely to play defending world champions Australia in a semi-final on Saturday.
“It was a tough game,” Jamaica shooter Romelda Aiken said.
“All the African teams stepped it up quite a lot and it was really tough out there.”
Aiken said Malawi’s push and shove was the most difficult aspect of their game to handle and earned a comparison with the Silver Ferns.
“They always come out to play really hard … even though we got hit we need to take it and man up and continue with the job,” she said.
