By James Robert Kayindi
The Malawi Queens maintained their unbeaten record as they defeated the Uganda She Cranes 59-53 in the opening game of Pool E qualification duel at the Netball World Cup this morning.
With two changes made in the starting lineup, Uganda’s dull start cost them the first two quarters of the game which they lost 19-10 and 16-12 respectively putting them into a 13-goal deficit by half-time. Harriet Apako and Alice Nanteza started ahead of Halima Nakacwa and Florence Nanyonga as the center player and goalkeeper respectively.
Malawi continued to dominate play in the third quarter extending their lead to 14goals as the scores stood at 50-36 in favour of the Queens.
The She Cranes showed resilience in the fourth quarter as they gave Malawi a test of the own medicine beating them 17-9 to win the last battle. They however lost the war having fallen in the first three quarters of the game.
Uganda lost the game 59-53 but were sharper in the shooting department as compared to their opponents of Malawi. They score 53 goals out of 57 attempts putting them to a shooting rate of 93% while Malawi scored 59 goals on 66 attempts putting their shooting accuracy to 89%.
The She Cranes will play Jamaica in the next qualification game on Thursday.
Email Robert: Robert.k.circles@gmail.com