ZIMBABWE'S Under-19 team claimed their second victory at the ongoing Confederation of Southern Africa Netball Associations (COSANA) Tri-Nations Cup when they beat Malawi 42-37 yesterday at Kuhes Sports Complex in Blantyre.
It was their second match at the tournament having played Namibia in their opening game on Sunday.
Zimbabwe put up a good show yesterday against the hosts to emerge winners.
The first quarter ended 12-10 in favour of Malawi.
However, Zimbabwe turned the tables in their favour in the second quarter with some outstanding performances led by goal shooter Thandazile Ndhlovu. They went into half time leading 22-17.
Zimbabwe remained in control of the game to stretch their lead to seven goals in the third quarter which ended 35-28.
They were able to hold to the lead in the last quarter and emerged the better team of the day.
Coach Simbarashe Mlambo was pleased with his charges and said they played as a team.
"I think the Young Gems handled the pressure very well and they did exceptionally well. I am very pleased with their performance. I wouldn't single out our strength as well because I think we coordinated very well.
"But I really think that Thandazile, our goal shooter, is the tallest player ever in Zimbabwe right now even among the seniors, she did very well and the defence failed to contain her hence she had a very good day and she did very well," said Mlambo.
They are scheduled to take on Namibia this morning.
"I think we don't need to be complacent. We really need to do so much and make sure that we make them pay for whatever mistake they will make.
"I know for a fact we are able to win and we just need to make sure that we are on top of our game and definitely improve on one or two things. We are not going to sleep, we are not going to be complacent.
"We are just going to take the game as it comes and play as if it's the first one."
Their last game is against Malawi tomorrow.
Mlambo believes they stand a good chance to upset the hosts when they meet again tomorrow. However, he said they need to remain on top of their game.
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"We still have to play with Malawi again and I don't want them to be complacent because I believe we have got the chance to just upset them once more. I am really happy about their performance," said Mlambo.
The technical team is taking the tournament as a platform to assess the progress made so far in their preparations for the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region Five Under-20 Youth Games.
"Well I think the team is progressing very well and obviously they can still do better than that. They are young and they need to coordinate more and need to understand each other's play and capitalise on that. But I believe they are becoming very competitive and they are doing very well.
"So we are preparing for the Region Five Games and obviously we need to do a little bit more, get a bit more depth so that we don't feel like we are insufficient as far as the substitutions are concerned. Definitely that's an area we need to look at.
"We need to just pull all our resources and bring in more so that we do better than this. But obviously I am happy with a lot of players that we have here and we will continue to see how well they perform against Namibia and against Malawi as well," said Mlambo.
While the Under-19s won their game against Malawi, the Gems lost again to Malawi in their second meeting yesterday.
They were defeated 47-35.
