ZIMBABWE continued its rise up the netball ranks with a 27-goal win over Barbados. The Bajan Gems lost some fire in the second half as Zimbabwe won to finish 13th at the Netball World Cup. The Gems’ 75-48 victory against the Bajan Gems was a much deserved win with the Gems shaking the confidence in some higher ranked nations as they are bound for netball glory.

These nations only met four days ago with Barbados coming out with the bragging rights.

They celebrated a bittersweet loss of decorated veteran Sasha Corbin who has officially retired from all levels of netball after playing her last game for the Saracen Mavericks only three months ago, while playing 71 test caps for the England Roses.

It was a good start by Barbados with the shooters sharing the scoring load evenly, but Kadeen Corbin (29 goals)stepped it up in the second term scoring 11 of Barbados’s 15 goals. 

Zimbabwe only led by two goals at half-time, insinuating that a big game was ahead, but the Gems put the foot down to win the second half convincingly and score 20-plus goals in each term.

Impressive shooting by Nalani Makunde (57) solidified the win for Zimbabwe with the shooter being one of the best in the World Cup in the last eight days. Her three rebounds as well just kept the scoreboard ticking over while putting the pressure on Barbados to perform.

The Gems had a really even load in attack with the three front liners sharing the load nicely with a high number of feeds but spread across the three well.

A seven-goal run from Zimbabwe in the third quarter heading into the fourth put a stinger into the Bajan Gems side which stuck with them for the rest of the game.

Barbados tried to find the answer to their sudden slippage of a deficit, ultimately causing an unbalance in their line up from all the changes and allowing Zimbabwe’s lead to continue extending.

The third quarter blitz sent nerves sky high for Barbados as they racked up 10 turnovers from a lot of unforced errors as Zimbabwe’s defence continued to dominate. The high penalty count for Barbados also gave the Gems shooters a lot of opportunities to shoot some easy undefended goals from right under the post.

There was hope if the Bajan Gems’ camp ahead of the fourth term, but Zimbabwe were too clinical and were able to punish Barbados for their turnovers.

It was a whole defensive effort from the Gems with all players having an exceptionally good game, sticking to the game plan and not let anything shake their confidence.

Singapore (49) defeated Sri Lanka (46)

Singapore overcame the Lioness to finish 15th in the Netball World Cup this year off the hand of a full court effort. Sri Lanka came out with a bang taking the first term by seven goals. But Singapore just kept on chipping away at the deficit to ultimately come out victorious from the full court press they were placing on the Sinhalese.

Shooting accuracy was a constant problem for Singapore this tournament, but this time round was different with it being a highlight of their side as the shooters were able to finish off the hard defensive work under the post. Amandeep Chahal (38 goals, four rebounds) was huge for Singapore getting great space in the circle due to Angelina Lim’s (48 feeds, 27 goal assists) striking feeds. The speed on the ball was phenomenal from the Singaporeans and when they were not confident to go to the post they were able to pass it around and wait for someone to be open and get the goal.

Down the other end, Thishala Algama also had a big night under the post and some big shoes to fill. Her 43 goals was ever so important for the Lioness being that strong target in the circle for them while giving the rest of her side confidence that she would punish at the post with the help of Malmi Hettiarachchi’s four intercepts.