The Zimbabwe senior netball team, the Gems have upped their tempo as they aim to give their opponents a run for their money when the Netball World Cup kicks off in South Africa next week.

Preparations have been on course for the past two months, giving the team enough time to gel and form combinations, before they take on the world’s best in South Africa.

The Gems, however, failed to secure friendlies with other national teams, but resorted to playing male opposition to improve their physical game and technical ability.

GEMS coach, Ropafadzo Mutsauki said, “We failed to secure friendlies with other countries, but when we played against the boys’ teams, we got the confidence that boys are stronger than girls, so we an advantage, but tactically speaking, the boys could be behind because the national team has experts, so we may lag behind in that respect. But we will rectify that during the friendlies that we will be playing in South Africa.”

After flying the nation’s flag high on their maiden World Cup appearance in Liverpool, England in 2019, the ladies are raring to go and improve on their finish at the last campaign.

“We are definitely ready to drop all the big teams, like Australia, Tonga, all teams in the group stage and then we proceed from there. We’ve been in camp, I think for two months now, so we’re ready. We were working on combinations and we are happy with the progress. Definitely, we’re going to give them a good run, they will run, work and we will beat them,” noted vice captain, Claris Kwaramba.

The Gems will fly to South Africa on the 20th of August, where they will begin their World Cup campaign against Australia on the 28th of August.

The Gems will then round up their group matches against Tonga and Fiji.-ZBC News