Diamond Challenge: She Cranes lose 51-40 to Malawi

Jun 17, 2015

Uganda’s head coach Fred Mugerwa is impressed with the She Cranes performance even after they lost to Malawi in their first encounter at the ongoing Diamond Challenge in Durban, South Africa.

By David Namunyala

Diamond Challenge, South Africa

Results,
Malawi 51-40 Uganda

South Africa 63 Zambia 38

Wednesday,

7pm

Malawi vs. South Africa

8:45pm,

Zambia vs. Uganda

Uganda’s head coach Fred Mugerwa is impressed with the She Cranes performance even after they lost to Malawi in their first encounter at the ongoing Diamond Challenge in Durban, South Africa.


Uganda who are ranked 14th internationally and third in Africa succumbed to a 51-40 defeat against Africa’s best Malawi who are also ranked fifth in the world.

She Cranes skipper and Goal Shooter (GS) Peace Proscovia together with Goal Attack (GA) Hadijja Nakabuye steered Uganda to a trailing 11-15 chase in the first quarter and later 18-30 at halftime.

With swift center (C) Halima Nakachwa and defenders Florence Nanyonga and Martha Soigi, the She Cranes continued to struggle to beat the height advantage Malawi possessed but as pressure intensified local coach Mugerwa took a strong decision to substitute Nakabuye for Rachael Nanyonga.

Nanyonga’s substitution changed the game as she opened more passes to shooter Proscovia as the She Cranes dominated the third quarter although time wasn’t on their side to change the results around to their advantage.

“We opted for a win but we couldn’t achieve that so this gives me a challenge to plan and think deeper on how the team can win the remaining games,” Mugerwa said.

“But I am still impressed by the team performance and I have told them not to just play but to learn new skills from others teams because that is the only way we can improve our performance,” he added.

But the Ugandan side later cheered up after their skipper Proscovia was named the player of the match.

Uganda will this evening take on Africa’s number five Zambia in their second encounter at 8:45pm. Their opponents Zambia also lost their first encounter to host South Africa on Tuesday.

Host South Africa are sponsors to the weeklong tournament that has attracted the four African nations expected at the Netball World Cup scheduled from August 7 in Sydney, Australia.

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