* They were also inspired through an online audience they had with President Lazarus Chakwera prior to the game
* Who encouraged them to play their lungs out as Malawi were rooting on them to make history
By Duncan Mlanjira
After Malawi Queens stunned world number 1 Australia in today’s Netball World Cup semifinal qualifying match by drawing 28-28 in the 2nd quarter, playmaker Takondwa Lwazi got injured in the 3rd quarter and that disturbed coach Sam Kanyenda’s game plan.
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In an interview with MBC’s sports journalist, Frank Kandu in Pretoria, Kanyenda said he had to make unprepared substitution which he confessed was not good enough as he didn’t anticipate Lwazi misfortune.
“The substitution was not good enough to sustain the consistency of the game,” he said, while applauding his charges for their sublime performance against such a top class Australian side.
He attributed the Queens’ top form to the inspiration online audience the team had with President Lazarus Chakwera prior to the game, who encouraged them to play their lungs out as Malawi were rooting on them to make history.
Kanyenda said the President inspired the girls — thus they matched the Diamonds which Australian online, news.com.au acknowledged that Australia survived a huge scare to scrape through with a 70-46 win in their toughest test yet at the Netball World Cup.
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The report said the Diamonds — after dominating their opening three matches against Zimbabwe, Tonga and Fiji — found their match against the 6th ranked Queens and while they but the competition stepped up a notch against Malawi looked like they were taking control of the game, opening up a six goal lead in the first quarter, 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,” said the report, which also quotes Fox Netball commentator Sue Gaudion as saying: “The Diamonds look absolutely rocked here. What an enormous second quarter from Malawi.”
The Queens won the second quarter 15-12, handing the Diamonds their first loss of a quarter so far in the World Cup, to which Australia’s former great Madi Browne saying: “This is exactly the contest the Diamonds needed. I think this is a great contest.”
Meanwhile, the Queens next date Tonga on Thursday and Kanyenda said he will rest them tomorrow in order for them to get full recovery as they really put all they had against Australia.
