Silver Ferns gutted at shock loss

Cheree Kinnear

The Silver Ferns’ Commonwealth Games campaign has taken a major hit after they lost 57-53 to Malawi last night.

It is the first time New Zealand have lost to any netball team other than Australia at the Games, and is the Malawi Queens’ first victory over the Silver Ferns.

New Zealand looked set for a comfortable win after working through the first two quarters, taking a sevengoal advantage into halftime.

However, trouble was brewing and Malawi swung the game, winning the third quarter 17-9. The cracks were starting to show.

The Ferns struggled to show much confidence through the final quarter as Malawi continued to turn up the pressure on their crumbling opponents.

Silver Ferns coach Janine Southby said she was gutted with the historic loss and that the Ferns were disappointed with their performance.

“It’s one of those things you never want to do and we’re really disappointed with the product we put out there [last night], and we got punished for it,” Southby said.

“We were guilty of not really punishing them when we had that