Clinical Proteas sweep Zimbabwe aside

THE Spar Proteas surged into the final of the Africa Netball Cup with a comprehensive 85-32 victory over Zimbabwe at Griffin Sae-nda Sports Complex in Lilongwe, Malawi, yesterday afternoon and setting up a final against arch-rivals Uganda.

- ROWAN CALLAGHAN

The gulf in class between coach Jenny van Dyk’s defending champions and Zimbabwe was again evident from the first centre pass, as they flew into an 18-7 lead at the end of the first quarter, and led 40-16 by the halftime break.

The match was all but over as a contest at that stage but the Proteas continued to press home their advantage to run out comfortable winners, even in the face of a number of substitutions.

Elemaré van den Berg was restored to her starting role at goal shooter, and her combination with goal attack Owethu Ngubane proved too much for the smaller Zimbabwe defenders to handle.

They were clinical with their shots at goal, strong in the air and moved well to create openings that the likes of wing attack Kamogelo Maseko did well to exploit.

Rolene Streutker also kept the scoreboard ticking over when she replaced Ngubane.