Proteas in rout of Botswana

The Proteas kept their title defence firmly on track with a second win at the Diamond Challenge netball tournament in Polokwane on Wednesday.

Botswana provided little challenge to the defending champions, who easily romped to an 83-16 victory – their largest winning margin over their neighbours to date.

The visitors could only manage to slot in two goals in the first 15 minutes, and while the Proteas were not looking quite as smooth as usual, it allowed them to surge to a 19-2 lead by the first break.

While things did improve slightly for Botswana after the break, they simply battled to keep up with the pace.

Once again coach Norma Plummer was able to give all her players plenty of court time and try out some unusual combinations, as her side continued to dominate in all areas of the game.

Plummer said that after the first quarter “it just became a short, sharp game with a lot of speed”.

“I was very impressed,” she said.

“We’ve never played Lenize [Potgieter] out in front of Sigi [Burger] before – but these are the options we’ve got to have going into a World Championship.

“You never know when you might get an injury, and it just might be the move we need to win a game.”

Earlier in the afternoon, the SA President’s XII netball team also notched up their second win at the Ngoako Ramatlhodi Sports Complex.

Having edged out Zambia in a closely contested opening game on Tuesday, the SA side’s second encounter against Namibia was a much less nerve-wracking one for coach Jenny van Dyk.

The home side dominated from the start, playing the first quarter at a furious pace to race out to a 20-9 lead. They simply built the lead from there to finish as 61-31 winners.

“We felt better about everything, especially the first quarter. We were sinking those goals and the girls were connecting,” SA President’s XII captain Jessica Khomo said.

“Starting off strong definitely brought the morale and confidence up for the girls.”