Malawi Queens\u2019 quest to regain top five-finish at the 2015 Netball World Cup ended demoralisingly when they suffered a heartbreaking loss to South Africa\u2019s Spar Proteas 46-48 at Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday.<\/p>\n
But the consolation is that shooter Mwawi Kumwenda has scooped the player-of-the-tournament award following her impressive contribution at the tournament.<\/p>\n
The loss was a timely response from South Africa who lost to the Queens 58- 51 in Pool C opening match.<\/p>\n
Spar Proteas hit and tore apart Queens where it pains most as the result broke Malawi\u2019s hearts after they were tipped to regain position five in the play-offs match.<\/p>\n
Queens coach Peace Chawinga- Kaluwa would be wondering where she got it wrong after her charges showcased flashes of brilliance in defeats to Jamaica 63-62 and New Zealand\u2019s Silver Ferns, 57-49.<\/p>\n
The result was not expected, especially in the presence of in-form New Zealand based shooter Kumwenda who was later named player of the tournament on the final day of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Malawi\u2019s sole professional grabbe d headlines after Queens humbled South Africa in the opening match as she was described as the missing link.<\/p>\n
Kumwenda scored 36 baskets from 41 attempts while goal attacker Sindie Simtowe scored 10 baskets in 11 attempts.<\/p>\n
South Africa shooter Lenize Potgieter scored 32 baskets from 34 shots while goal attacker Maryka Holtzhausen scored 16 baskets from 22 attempts.<\/p>\n
It was suicidal for Queens to feature the same line-up throughout the competition and signs of fatigue were visible even though Malawi led the first quarter 12-11.<\/p>\n
South Africa won the second quarter 12-9 to lead at half time by 23-21.<\/p>\n
Queens fought back in the second quarter to score 15 baskets against 12 and retake the lead 36-35. South Africa then delivered the killer punch in the final quarter to win it 13-10 and seal the fifth-position with 48-46 victory.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, hosts and number one ranked, Australia defended the World Cup after beating number two ranked and favourites New Zealand 58-55.<\/p>\n
Just like the Queens and South Africa affair, Australia lost to Silver Ferns in the group stages but responded swiftly to hit and demean their rivals and walked-away with the glittering trophy.<\/p>\n
In a third-place match, England won bronze after beating Jamaica 66-44.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi Queens\u2019 quest to regain top five-finish at the 2015 Netball World Cup ended demoralisingly when they suffered a heartbreaking loss to South Africa\u2019s Spar Proteas 46-48 at Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday. But the consolation is that shooter Mwawi Kumwenda has scooped the player-of-the-tournament award following her impressive contribution at the tournament. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7599,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7595\/revisions\/7599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}