Malawi’s chances of progressing to the semifinals are all but over. They needed to beat one of the big two sides in Group B.
Malawi lost to England and New Zealand today despite beating Northern Ireland yesterday.
In our group B, we are in number 4 with England leading second followed by New Zealand then Uganda.
Now, Malawi will be fighting for position 5 together with Uganda and South Africa, a thing which we need to win at all means.
In 2018 we finished on number 7 with South Africa and Uganda finishing ahead of us.
In that year we managed to beat New Zealand 57-53, today we have not managed to repeat history
Details on how we lost today
The final match of day 4 was another Group B clash. There was nothing to seperate the sides in the initial stages with Malawi wing attack Galleta always an option and feeding accurately into the circle. Malawi goal shooter scored all 13 goals for her side, with the quarter time score New Zealand 15 – 13 Malawi.
The second quarter followed a similar pattern to that of the first with both sides causing each other problems. New Zealand circle defence forced Malawi into an error towards the end of the quarter, which allowed them to take a slender lead. However, Kumwenda scored a long range shot on the final whistle to bring Malawi to within 5 goals. This was the tightest match of the competition so far with the half-time score New Zealand 33 – 28 Malawi.
A couple of missed shots from Malawi allowed the Silver Ferns to race into an 11 goal lead at the start of the second half. New Zealand goal keeper Kelly Jury picked up a number of gains and interceptions which helped her team into a 51 – 39 lead at the third quarter break.
The crowd continued to cheer every Malawi goal, however New Zealand were showing why they are world champions with a calmness to their play. Day 4 was a great day for goal shooters and Grace Nweke continued this trend scoring 52 goals, missing just 3. New Zealand made it three wins out of three with the full time score New Zealand 69 – 50 Malawi.
#WaGanyu
