Zambia beat Kenya in U-21 Netball World Cup qualifiers

THE Zambia Under-21 national netball team increased their chances of qualifying for the 2025 Under-21 netball World Cup by beating Kenya in their fourth match at the ongoing World Cup qualifiers taking place in South Africa.

Zambia handed Kenya their third consecutive loss following a 52-32 beating to move to four points on the World Cup qualifiers table consisting of seven teams.

The Moses Ndlovu-drilled netball team commenced the World Cup qualifiers with two consecutive defeats to South Africa and Zimbabwe before beating Tanzania in their third game.

The latest victory cheered Ndlovu who was proud of the girls for fighting hard especially in the second half.

Zambia had started the game on a shaky note but managed to win the first quarter 9-7 and enjoyed a 20-17 half time lead.

In the third quarter, Zambia increased their tempo and opened a 12-point lead, winning the quarter 37-25.

Kenya could not recover from the third quarter setback and went on to lose the game by 20 points.

“Zambia has been the tough- est we have ever f a c e d . W e haven’t met a team that has a terrific speed. They move at a very fast speed, they are strong and they don’t get tired,” Kenya coach George Adoyo said after the match.

“We wanted to make it a must-win game for us but we can’t blame the girls they found much better side which is ahead of them and we understand them so we accept the loss,” Adoyo said.

Zambia will face unbeaten Malawi today and Ndlovu is confident the girls will come to the party and snatch another win.

“Looking at our next game against Malawi, everyone is determined to qualify for the World Cup but it won’t be easy. Malawi will come prepared and we will also go in hard and looking at the strategy we plan to work on, we will beat Malawi,” Ndlovu said.

With unbeaten South Africa and Malawi dominating the World Cup qualifiers, Zambia will need to beat Malawi and Namibia in the last two games to qualify for the World Cup.

Only the top three teams will qualify for the Under-21 netball Word Cup which will be played next year in Gibraltar.