Source:www.guardian.co.tt
T&T senior netballers made a poor start to the three-match Test series against South Africa, crumbling to a 57-38 loss at the Western Cape Sport School on Tuesday night. The Proteas bettered their Caribbean rivals despite a lacklustre third quarter in which they conceded ten goals and scored only six.
While this period brought roars of disapproval from the crowd, it might well prove to be the most important phase of the match, as it showed the coaching staff which combinations to avoid and which players they can’t count on going forward.
The decision to make five changes at the start of the second half, while the Proteas were leading comfortably by 28-16 and well on their way to giving their guests a proper hiding, interrupted the team’s rhythm and saw a drop in the intensity. The replacements lost possession cheaply, made the wrong decisions and failed to put any pressure on their opponents. In the end it was up to the stalwarts who proved themselves in the first half (and, it must be said, in the recent Tri-Nations series against Botswana and Singapore) to restore the winning margin to a respectable 19 goals in a fourth quarter which they dominated by pouncing on “Calypso Girls” errors and combining superbly in the midfield.
With goalshooter Claudia Basson and defender Leigh-Ann Zackey at the forefront the Proteas starved the Caribbeans of possession and barely skipped a beat on execution in all three thirds of the court.
Basson missed only six of 29 goal attempts and finished the night with a 79 per cent success rate.
This was in stark contrast to the performance of her replacement, Chrisna Bootha, who seemed hasty and netted only 60 per cent of her opportunities. Despite the absence of wing attack Nthabiseng Moabi the midfield gel, with Zanele Mdodane doing well in said position and feeding Basson excellently.
Her combination with centre Erin Burger and goal attack Maryka Holtzhausen left the T&T defence with no answers. The second match was to take place yesterday.