Proteas crowned champions of Africa in the City
SOUTH Africa claimed a clean sweep at the African Netball Cup in Cape Town providing newly-appointed coach Dorette Badenhorst with a good start to her tenure.
The Proteas netball team won all six of their matches at the continental tournament, but their performances on the court were not without blemishes. This will give Badenhorst some room for improvement ahead of their three-Test series against world number three England in Cape Town next month.
SA won their sixth and final match of the tournament with a 72-53 victory over Zambia yesterday.
Zambia put up a brave fight despite their 19-point defeat at the hands of the host nation.
SA managed to score a half-century of points in all six of their matches with Uganda and Kenya, ranked sixth and seventh in the world respectively putting up the biggest fights at the tournament.
Zambia put up a brave fight in the opening half of yesterday’s match, playing in their second game of the day after a 68-32 win over
Lesotho.
The home team went five up against a fired-up Zambian side going into the second quarter of the match. The Zambians held the powerhouse of African netball at arm’s length trailing by six points with SA leading 31-25 at the halftime break.
Badenhorst made numerous changes throughout the match, testing her different combinations.
SA found their groove in the third quarter extending their lead to 16 points to lead Zambia 53-37 going into the final period.
Zambia could not stop the bleeding in the fourth quarter with the Proteas adding 19 points to the scoresheet for a comprehensive victory.