THIS WAS not the game plan, nor the intended result.
A poor offensive first half sealed Barbados’ fate and largely contributed to their 43-59 defeat by South Africa in netball at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, yesterday.
And with a sure defeat against New Zealand on the cards today, Barbados seem set to play Trinidad and Tobago for seventh place tomorrow morning.
The plan going into the game was to “get as much service to the circle as early as possible” but this was not to be after the first quarter and were in an even bigger 16-30 hole at half-time.
“That is where we lost the game,” coach Alwyn Babb told SUNSPORT.
“We didn’t give the shooters enough opportunities to stay with South Africa. They were able to work out the pass to Lydia [Bishop] and we took too long to adjust.
“Lydia continued to play for the post. It wasn’t one of her better games. She needed move out to break up the double team.”
Bishop was limited to 33 attempts of which she converted 28. Nikita Piggott replaced starting goal attack Nadia Blackman (two from five) and she scored 13 from 15.
In addition, South Africa’s defence had 23 interceptions compared to ten by Barbados. Goalkeeper Leigh-Ann Zackey had 11, and goal defence Amanda Mynhardt and wing defence Zanele Mdodana had four each.
Latonya Blackman had six for Barbados.
She paired up with Faye Sealy who was used for the whole match at goalkeeper in place of Lisa Puckerin. Sealy had two interceptions, but she was also called for contact 23 times and seven for obstruction.
“South Africa has a very tall goal shooter and Puckerin is much shorter than Faye, but in her inexperience, she was still able to challenge,” Babb explained.
Not consistent
“But what they [South Africa] were allowed to do to Lydia – push and hit – Faye was not allowed to challenge. There was a lot of inconsistency. When she same around with the outside hand, they still called against her. It was very unfortunate.”
Shooter Sindisiwe Gumede led South Africa with 42 goals from 49 attempts and goal attack Christine Markgraaff had 17 from 24.
By the time Barbados figured out a way to get the ball into the shooter in the second half of the game, where they scored 28 goals to South Africa’s 29, the deficit was too great to overcome. Â
Trinidad and Tobago also went down 50-61 to Malawi, and like Barbados, they fell from third to fourth in Pool A, setting up another meeting between the archrivals in the cross over.
Hosts India fell to their fourth successive defeat 26-69 against Samoa, while Cook Islands overcame a ten-goal deficit to edge the lower ranked Papua New Guinea 60-58.
Summarised scores:
Pool A
Cook Islands 60 (Patricia Te Huna 23/26, Ngatokoroa Tuitupou 37/45). Papua New Guinea 58 (Tiata Baldwin 7/9, Lua Rikis 43/48, Maleta Roberts 8/8). Half-time: 24-34
Samoa 69 (Shirin Chang 14/16, Barbara Faasavalu 9/12, Monica Fuimaono 25/29, Sepuita Langi 21/24). India 26 (Megha Chaudhary 3/6, Harminder Kaur 3/7, Kiranjeet Kaur 14/19, Prachi Tehlan 6/9). Half-time: 34-15.
Pool B
South Africa 59 (Sindisiwe Gumede 42/49, Christine Markgraaff 17/24). Barbados 43 (Nadia Blackman 2/5, Lydia Bishop 28/33, Nikita Piggott 13/15). Half-time: 30-16
Malawi 61 (Mwayi Kumwenda 37/42, Mary Waya 24/27). Trinidad and Tobago 50 (Janelle Barker 7/7, Joelisa Cooper 17/19, Anestacia Wilson 26/30). Half-time: 32-21.
