Mixed fortunes

Uganda yesterday proved they are on a serious mission to topple Malawi from sixth position on Ifna world rankings after the She-Cranes beat the Queens for the fourth consecutive time.

When the She-Cranes clobbered Malawi twice at the 2017 edition of the Africa Netball Championship in Kampala, some felt it was just a fluke.

Then the She-Cranes did it again at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia in April this year,  but still some thought the Queens were just going through a bad patch.

But after taking advantage of lowly-ranked Zimbabwe in their opening match at the on-going Africa Netball Championship in Lusaka Zambia, the Queens were in for it in their second match against the defending champions.

The She-Cranes showed they are bent on ruining Malawi and they did this in style as they led in all quarters of the match to win 51-46.

Though featuring the best of best led by United Kingdom-based shooter Joyce Mvula, Malawi’s attack left a lot to be desired.

No wonder the defending champions imposed their authority on the Queens and cruised to a 15-9 lead in the first quarter, 22-25 in  and 38-36 in third.

In the last quarter, Uganda, stepped up their act and launched an offensive and got the better of Malawi to open a five-basket gap.

Coach Griffin Saenda said all was not lost after Malawi bounced back to beat Botswana in the second game of the day played later in the afternoon.

“We just need to win all our remaining matches,” he said.

The Queens face hosts Zambia this morning in their fourth match at the continental tournament.