Zimbabwe Netball team’s hopes of making it into the podium positions we dented by a ruthless Malawi side who capitalised on every mistake the Gems made and at the end of the match it was Malawi walking off court with a 71-46 win over Zimbabwe.

The first quarter started off on fire as both Southern African teams traded point for point until the Malawi surged ahead thanks to 2 intercepts off Patricia Maluladi’s attempted passes and closed the first stanza 11-16.

The second quarter started off exactly the same way as the firtt quarter until an injury to goal shooter Joice Takaidza who never looked healed from yesterday’s fall, sucked out the impetus from the Gems and from there onwards it was Malawi who dominated the game.

Coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki later introduced Lorraine Manjoro for Patricia Mauladi, Sharon Bwanali came in at goal shooter with Ursula playing as the goal attacker but the changes in the final third of the court never paid dividends and the technical bench was quick to rectify it as they brought in Linda Nkorongo for Ursula and Sharon moved to her familiar attacking position and fluidity returned to the team but all this while Malawi was just surging further ahead.

At the end of the match, Coach Ropa bemoaned the injury to Joice and the lack of preparations going into the tournament.

“Overally we played well, we could have done better this game and the tournament in general but the injury to Joice affected the team’s rhythm and we took time to recover.

Going forward we need to have sound preparations just like what we did when going for the world cup and the results were telling for everyone, we can not do more if we prepare well and it’s a lesson that we have learnt, ” said the stand in coach.

The Gems now finish the tournament ranked 4th and need to make sure they play in future competitions to improve their rankings.