19 Jun 2018

The Botswana netball team on June 18 started the CUCSA tournament with a morale-boosting win, demolishing Malawi 55 goals to 18.

Although they played well, the one-sided victory was perhaps more of a reflection of Malawi’s shortcomings than Botswana’s brilliance.

The Botswana team started the first quarter on a high pace compared to their opponents and scored 11 against four.

The team showed their true colours and dictated the pace of the game, as they gave their opponents a hard time in midcourt, thus making it difficult for them to play balls to the shooting cycle.

Midcourt players, Kgomotso Matibedi, Fatima Dino and Maipelo Mosotho continued with their supremacy throughout.

Mosotho came with blazing fireworks in the third quarter, scoring each and every ball passed to her while denying Malawian defenders access to the shooting cycle.

Mosotho played back to back with centre and wing attack to feed the goal shooter thus increasing goals.

At the end of the third quarter, the score was 38-16 in favour of Botswana.

In the last quarter of the game, Botswana came with more confidence as they continued to perform extremely well especially the defence, thus frustrating their opponents in the shooting area.

On the day, Botswana was just too strong, fast and smart for the Malawian girls to tame, which eventually saw the hosts emerging victorious.

In an interview, Botswana coach, Delroy Nkomasana said the girls played well and that they plan to improve in upcoming games.

“After the game we had an analysis and pointed out the areas that need improvements because some of our players had their first international exposure and there was some anxiety,” he said.

Nkomasana said the players were positive and ready to improve on their mistakes, adding that they would focus on each other’s strong points in their upcoming matches. ENDS