She Cranes stay on course after Malawi scalp
Gifted Hands. Stella Nanfuka thwarts an attempt on Uganda’s goal. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
Netball. The She Cranes are also looking at collecting enough points to earn a place at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia.
KAMPALA. Uganda is two wins away from winning the Africa Netball Championship after yesterday’s 66-43 win over Malawi, the highest ranked team at the six team tournament being played at the Lugogo MTN Arena.
The result made it three wins from as many games and put the She Cranes firmly on course for the championship played on a round-robin format.
The team currently ranked 13th in the world is also looking at collecting enough points to earn a place at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
The 11 highest-ranked teams in the INF World Rankings (excluding Australia) as at 1 July 2017 will qualify.
Despite winning the two warm up games 67-34 and 52-39, the She Cranes were slight underdogs against the Malawians who are ranked sixth and also prevailed 59-53 at the 2015 World Cup.
“We initially found it difficult with their shooters and us missing our centre Betty Kizza,” She Cranes coach Vincent Kiwanuka said of Malawi shooters Jessica Mazengera and Joyce Mvula who finished with 23 and 20 goals respectively. The She Cranes edged the openign two quarters13 -11 and 27-22.
They then upped their game in the third with goal defender Lilian Ajio and goalkeeper Stella Nanfuka making vital interceptions as shooter Peace Proscovia got the better of Kamwala Alinafe. The Malawi goalkeeper was letter sent off for accumulated fouls and dissent towards the umpires.
Proscovia who also plays professionally with Loughborough Lightning in England finished with 49 goals with Hadija Nakabuye and stellah Oyella adding nine and eight goals respectively. “Peace has improved tremendously because she is posting well and her movement makes it easy to create space. She is also very aggressive. She also had troublesome knees which are now a thing of the past,” She Cranes Vincent Kiwanuka recollected after the game.
The She Cranes return to action tomorrow against holders Zimbabwe who lost 55-45 to Malawi and defeated Botswana 56-37 before wrapping up against Zambia on Thursday.
“This win almost guarantees us the title,” said Kiwanuka.
