* Australia looked like they was taking control of the game, opening up a six goal lead in the first quarter
* Before World No. 6 Malawi fought back turning over plenty of ball and were unpredictable in attack
* Surging back to briefly take the lead before the score was levelled 28-28 at halftime
By Matthew Sullivan, news.com.au
Australia has survived a huge scare to scrape through with a 70-46 win over Malawi in their toughest test yet at the Netball World Cup being hosted by South Africa.
The Diamonds had dominated their opening three matches against Zimbabwe, Tonga and Fiji but the competition stepped up a notch against Malawi.
Australia looked like they was taking control of the game, opening up a six goal lead in the first quarter before World No. 6 Malawi fought back.
The Queens turned over plenty of ball and were unpredictable in attack, surging back to briefly take the lead before the score was levelled 28-28 at halftime.
Fox Netball commentator Sue Gaudion said: “The Diamonds look absolutely rocked here. What an enormous second quarter from Malawi” as the Queens won the second quarter 15-12, handing the Diamonds their first loss of a quarter so far in the World Cup.
Diamonds’ great Madi Browne said: “This is exactly the contest the Diamonds needed. I think this is a great contest.”
Malawi’s strong first half prompted Australian coach Stacey Marinkovich to make two changes at halftime — Sophie Garbin came on for Cara Koenen at goal shooter and Jo Weston replaced Sarah Klau at goal defence.
The Diamonds rebounded after the main break, retaking the lead in a dominant 21-9 third quarter and running away with the game as Marinkovich used all 12 players at her disposal to get the Diamonds back in the game — their fifth in five days.
Garbin finished with 28 goals from 32 attempts as all four of Australia’s shooters scored at least 10 goals.
It was a particularly impressive performance by Malawi, considering the team risked falling apart after star goal shooter Mwawi Kumwenda was publicly criticised by her own teammates for refusing to come off the bench against England.
The Queens opened their campaign with a win over Scotland before losing to England 62-39 in their second game but the squad were frustrated they couldn’t make it a closer game against England as Mwawi Kumwenda reportedly refused to take the court on Saturday.
After the peculiar decision not to have Kumwenda start the game, Malawi’s coach asked her to come off the bench with two minutes left in the first half.
She stayed on the bench until the last quarter, but England had opened up a 19-goal lead by then. Captain Jane Chimaliro and members of the team took to social media to shift the blame for their loss against England to Vixens shooter Mwai Kumwenda who was not present in the video.
When contacted why Mwawi was on the bench, coach Sam Kanyenda said the decision was tactical, the plan was to inject her halfway through as an impact but then things changed and he opted not to.
Kumwenda said after the game she didn’t come on to the court because she didn’t believe she had enough time to properly warm up to enter the game at the coach’s just before halftime.
“I was doing my warm up,” the 33-year-old told news.com.au. “But coach has got his own plans. I was just excited to see the other girls playing today.
“It was two minutes so I couldn’t get in. Two minutes is hard, professional player like me is very hard. I need to warm up and have more time.”
Fox Netball’s Hannah Hollis described it as “a mutiny within the Malawi camp”, while commentator Sue Gaudion said: “The Malawi Queens have come out on Twitter and based off the loss to England yesterday, almost blaming Mwai Kumwenda for the fact that she was asked to take the court just shy of the halftime time break and refused to come on court.
“They’re not happy. There’s obviously some distrust or a fallout in the camp,” while Australian Madi Browne added: “It’s obviously sad to see them go to Twitter and air this dirty laundry in a way.
“The coach stated ‘We want to use her as an impact player, we don’t always want to start her in the game’. She was asked to come on two minutes before the halftime break but didn’t. We know she’s a superstar player, we know she loves to play. So it’s a little bit confusing. There’s two sides to the story.”
Diamonds legends Cath Cox and Caitlin Bassett weren’t impressed by Kumwenda’s warm up explanation and said the whole saga was “embarrassing”.
Cox said: “A professional athlete, your coach tells you to get on the court with two minutes to go, you get on the court. If that was a world cup final, the teams are even, there’s a minute left, the coach says get on the court — is she going to say no, there’s not enough time to warm up.
“That shocked me and “I’m not at all happy to hear that coming from her because I thought she was much better than that. How do they let alone play the game, but get on the team bus after what’s taken place publicly? I think this is all really embarrassing for Malawi.
“It needs to be sorted out because she is their best player. They need her on board and playing well for them to get any wins up.”
Bassett said: “Talk about disruptive and distracting for this team. When the teammates come out and blame a loss on a single player, it’s really serious. I’ve never ever seen anything like this.
Malawi’s Netball Association released a statement confirming Kumwenda would start Sunday night’s must win game against Barbados, saying: “We have noted with concern the unfortunate development in the Queens camp currently in circulation on social media.”