Minnows Botswana wallops Fijian Pearls

Fiji Pearls ranked Number (No.) 15 in the world lost 6043 to No. 31 Botswana, the tournament’s lowest-ranked team, in first day of competition of the Nations Cup 2022 in Singapore on Sunday.

Led by Vaiti Waqatabu the Fijian netballers could not get their act together as they played catch up right from the first quarter.

Fiji Pearls trailed 7-21 in the first quarter, managed 13 against Botswana’s 14 to lock the score 20-35 at half time. Fiji slotted in 11 against the Bots’ 13 to round up the third quarter 31-48 and they each scored 12 in the final quarter for the 43-60 full time score.

The score at the end of the four quarters speak volumes for Fiji against a team listed 16 places behind them. Fiji is in Pool A with world champs Australia (No.1), Tonga (No. 8) and Zimbabwe (No. 13) in next year’s World Cup.

Midas touch

For Botswana with coach Jenny van Dyk’s Midas touch, the win was good enough to round off as they are not in next year’s June World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Botswana side had come out firing right from the start leaving no room for shooters Matila Vocea and Unaisi Rauluni to score while at the other end semi-circle defenders Merelita Waqanidrola and Sereana Maragi were often caught flat footed, this allowed the opposing shooters to put up a big pile by the end of the first quarter.

Training at the Sigatoka sand dunes leading up to this tournament seem to not have any effect to the Fijians’ as they were slow and lacked the fire.

Ireland captain Fran Duffy was disappointed by their narrow 4547 loss to Singapore but added her teammates learnt a lot from the match and they hope to show improvement for the rest of the week.

The close march results at the end of the quarters saw the two sides on 13-all in the first quarter, 25-26 to Ireland at half time.

“Ireland led 38-33 at the end of the third quarter with Singapore putting in 13 and Ireland only 7 for the final 45-47 to the hosts.

Duffy said: “Our goal here is to come, to win.

“We want to build on every performance and learn from each game and add on so that, by the end of the tournament, we’re at our strongest.

Singapore coached by New Zealander Annette Bishop, plays Fiji, the highest-ranked side in the sixteam tournament last night; this match was still played when this edition went to press.

While Ireland is not taking part in the upcoming World Cup Singapore is in Pool D in next year’s World Cup with New Zealand (No. 2), Uganda (No. 7) and Trinidad & Tobago (No. 11).

Five days of round-robin play will decide the finalists who will battle it out on Saturday, December 10.

Other results for Day 1 (Sunday) Singapore A 51 Malaysia 39).

Points so far: 2– Botswana 2, Singapore A and Singapore 2 following their wins on Sunday.