Diamonds whack rivals Tigresses to maintain top position
Kukoma Diamonds have maintained their lead in the 2018 Rainbow Paints Blantyre and District netball League log table after thrashing their old rivals Tigresses 65—23 baskets in an entertaining and a
well patronised match played on Sunday at Blantyre Youth Centre.
After losing two games to Diamonds in the same competition in 2017 season Blantyre based netball lovers came in their large numbers tosee if it was really time for revenge for Tigresses.
Lead by captain Beatrice Mpinganjira, Tigresses started the match with serious attack searching for early baskets but their mission failed to give them fruits after their shooter Ellen Chibokho struggled to break through the strong and experienced combination defence of Caroline Ntukule Ngwira and Towera ‘Toby’ Vinkhumbo.
Current Diamonds in-form shooter Alinafe Kamwala who was a marvel to watch during the match started punishing Tigresses in the first quarter and helped her team to take a 17-4 lead in the quarter.
Tigresses which missed the services of Sindi Simutowe who is serving a two game ban displayed some good inter-changing passes in the second and third quarter and managed to put Diamonds under pressure.
But despite creating a number of good chances their shooters failed to utilise most of the opportunities.
Diamonds made things tough for Tigresses when they changed their usual play and adopted a quick and long pass style which made Kamwala to continue shining as she was scoring baskets like nobody’s business.
Speaking after the match Diamonds headcoach Griffin Saenda Senior praised her girls for registering a third successful win which he said its morale booster to their side as it will bring confidence to the
team.
“It is always unpredictable match when we are playing Tigresses because both sides have quality and experienced players. But I’m now a happy person because we wanted this win so that we can continue
staying on top of the table. I just give credit to my players for putting up a good fight,” said Saenda Senior.
Saenda Senior further promised all Diamonds fans to expect good things from the team as they are trying to bring back the winning spirit in both Rainbow Paints league as well as national competitions.
“Last year we failed to win any cup in the major competitions because I was not around but now I’m back and i will make everything possible to win all the cups, ” added Saenda Senior.
His counterpart Peace Chawinga Kalua blamed the loss as due to lack of enough training time for the team which has come due to poor financial status which the team facing.
“I can’t blame my girls for the loss instead I need to congratulate them because I didn’t expect to see them displaying such kind of beautiful play considering the challenges which are going through. We
only trained for two days preparing for this tough game since we don’t have money to pay for netball courts for training.
“We are just hoping that things will be better as we go because we have assembled a very good squad for this season which is a mixe up with young and experienced players and I am very much optmistic that we’ll revenge this loss come second round,” said Chawinga.
Here are the full results of other games played on Sunday in the Rainbow Paints League.
Machinjiri Sisters 31—51 Chilomoni Sisters
Thunder Queens 85—14Gerald Tasaukadala
Shizella Queens 36—51 Serenity Stars
Prison Sisters 57—18 Polytechnic
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