Malawi national netball team are set to claim silver medal for the third successive time in Africa Netball Championship after underling their supremacy over Uganda and Lesotho.
The Queens deservedly defeated Uganda 49-45 in a tight battle at Belleville Velodrome Stadium Cape Town in South Africa Monday to stay in contention for a silver medal.
In their second assignment, free scoring Queens showed no mercy after thrashing Lesotho 89-32 to strengthen their chances for runners-up finish.
Despite a string of changes as the coach wanted some players to rest following a tough day.
Hosts, South Africa Spar Proteas, who are yet to lose having maintained a perfect winning run and will likely win gold with Queens settling for silver if they do not mess up against Zimbabwe whom they meet later today.
Defending champions Uganda’s She-Cranes are now set to end on third position.
The Queens, who in the last two editions of the championship played second fiddle to Uganda having lost 66- 43 in Kampala in 2017 and 51- 46 in Lusaka, Zambia, have now recorded two successive wins.
Malawi beat Kenya 72-34, Zambia 70-42, and lost to Uganda 66-43 and 51-46 in Lusaka, Zambia.
She Cranes tried to ‘balance the boat’ in first quarter where both side ended at a square of 11 baskets but the following second, third and last quarter, Malawi proved to be slightly more experienced and speedy on court compared to She Cranes girls, nearly most of them having their first high profile tournament in their career.
This means that the hopes to defend the title for the third consecutive time slipped off.
Uganda lost two games in row, the one against South Africa (50- 47) Monday and the 45- 49 against Malawi.
Uganda remains in second place with six points out of the played five, square with Malawi but Malawi has two games in hand while Uganda remaining with only one game which is tomorrow against Neighbors, Kenya.
To finish second, Uganda need to pray that Malawi lose one of their last two games and Uganda beat Kenya on Tuesday with the biggest goal margin.
