Malawi National Netball Team is out of the top four race at the ongoing Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, following Tuesday’s heavy defeat to Australia.
The Queens must now play for a win today when they take on Tonga from 6pm with a chance to qualify for the fifth-place match.
The winner of the tie will most likely meet either South Africa or Uganda who, like Malawi and Tonga in Group F, finished third and fourth in Group G.
Australia and England emerged first and second from Group F, respectively, while Jamaica and New Zealand top Group G.
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Interim Queens Coach Samuel Kanyenda remains adamant that his team is still in the race.
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“We will fight to the end. We are looking forward to winning this match. From there, we will see what happens next but I still believe we are very much in contention. We have worked on all our mistakes which saw us lose to Australia. A win is a must; nothing else,” Kanyenda said.
Centre court star Takondwa Lwazi said they should not have lost to Australia.
“The loss to Australia marked the end of our dream to conquer the world. We should have known this much earlier. We needed to win all our matches and finish as group winners. We needed to avoid losing any match at this tournament.
“Because of the two losses, we are now under pressure to get a win at all cost and wait for results from the third and fourth-placed teams from the other group. We could have done better than fighting for position five or six,” Lwazi said.
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This far, Malawi have registered three wins and two defeats.
According to the rules of the global showpiece, the knockout and placing phase will involve all knocked out teams who will still play with the teams being ranked from 1st to 16th by end of the tournament, with the top three teams from Pools A and B forming Group F while the top three in Pools C and D make up Pool G.
Pool F’s winner will go on to play the runner-up in Pool G, with winner of Pool G facing the runner-up in Pool F.
Teams to reach the semi-finals will lock horns for gold and silver while the losers will battle for bronze.
The global showpiece ends on Sunday with the grand final throwing off at 6pm.
The third place play-off will be played on Sunday from 4pm while the battle for positions five and six will be fought at 11am, with the 7th and 8th position matches throwing off at 9am.
Today’s matches are as follows:
Jamaica vs Netherlands
Fiji vs Scotland
South Africa vs Uganda
Tonga vs Malawi
