Jewels draw first blood
Team to face Africa’s best in the second match
Namibia defeated Tanzania in their opening match yesterday at the Netball Africa World Cup qualifiers in Pretoria.
Namibia's Debmarine Desert Jewels defeated Tanzania 54-40 in their first match in the Netball Africa World Cup qualifier match yesterday at the University of Pretoria Rembrandt Hall.
Jewels head coach, Mary Waya, said the team performed well.
‘‘We stuck to our game plan. We were delayed in arriving at the venue as the car that picked us up at the hotel came late, so that affected the players a bit.
‘‘This is not the way I wanted to start the competition. In the first three minutes, we were leading 5-0. That is the way we want to play all the games throughout.
‘‘We are going to concentrate in all the games moving onwards to keep consistency. We need to work on ball handling as well as the shooting. But tomorrow there will be an improvement in the shooting.’’
Happy
She added that she changed the players a lot during the match so that everyone was given a chance to play and to relieve the stress that they might have had.
The captain of the side, Anna Kasper, who was also the player of the match, was satisfied with their performance and said that they went hard at it, as that was the plan. She added that their confidence levels are at 95% right now.
‘‘We don’t know what might happen moving forward.
‘‘The combinations are 100% so far. There were challenges as the match was physical, so the plan was just to take the shots and see how it goes.’’
Namibia’s second match will be against South Africa at 18:00 today. On Tuesday they will face Zimbabwe at 12:00, whereas the third and last pool match will be against Botswana at 12:00 on Wednesday.
The two top-placed nations in the qualifiers will qualify for the 2023 Netball World Cup.
South Africa has already qualified for the World Cup, which means if they form part of the two top teams in the pool, the third placed team will also qualify.
Namibia is in Group A with Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Jewels head coach, Mary Waya, said the team performed well.
‘‘We stuck to our game plan. We were delayed in arriving at the venue as the car that picked us up at the hotel came late, so that affected the players a bit.
‘‘This is not the way I wanted to start the competition. In the first three minutes, we were leading 5-0. That is the way we want to play all the games throughout.
‘‘We are going to concentrate in all the games moving onwards to keep consistency. We need to work on ball handling as well as the shooting. But tomorrow there will be an improvement in the shooting.’’
Happy
She added that she changed the players a lot during the match so that everyone was given a chance to play and to relieve the stress that they might have had.
The captain of the side, Anna Kasper, who was also the player of the match, was satisfied with their performance and said that they went hard at it, as that was the plan. She added that their confidence levels are at 95% right now.
‘‘We don’t know what might happen moving forward.
‘‘The combinations are 100% so far. There were challenges as the match was physical, so the plan was just to take the shots and see how it goes.’’
Namibia’s second match will be against South Africa at 18:00 today. On Tuesday they will face Zimbabwe at 12:00, whereas the third and last pool match will be against Botswana at 12:00 on Wednesday.
The two top-placed nations in the qualifiers will qualify for the 2023 Netball World Cup.
South Africa has already qualified for the World Cup, which means if they form part of the two top teams in the pool, the third placed team will also qualify.
Namibia is in Group A with Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
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