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Tadious Manyepo in CAPE TOWN, South Africa
IT is time to use the calculators once again.
But at least the Gems still have their destiny in their own hands.
They did themselves a huge disservice with a shocking 52-48 loss to Fiji in their second game at the ongoing Netball World Cup at the Cape Town International Convention Centre here yesterday.
The defeat followed hard on the heels of an opening-day hiding at the hands of world number one team Australia.
Perhaps that was understandable.
But coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki and his charges ought to have made amends against Fiji, who are ranked 19th in the world, five places below the Gems.
They started brightly and even had a four-goal cushion at one point towards the end of the first quarter.
But their frailties allowed the Fijians to recover and claim their first victory in Pool A, having lost their opening encounter 56-51 to Tonga.
That means every team in Pool A has now won at least a match, except the Gems, who anchor the four-team log.
With a minus 60 points difference, Zimbabwe will now need to beat Tonga in their last group game by at least 18 goals for them to progress to the Super Six.
Their decisive match against Tonga is scheduled for 6pm today.
The other scenario that would see the Gems progress to the next round will be having Australia beating Fiji by at least 61 goals, while Zimbabwe overcome Tonga by any margin.
With the top three teams in each of the four-team pools progressing to the next round of two groups of six, Zimbabwe will have to pull all the stops to beat Tonga to ensure they get a chance of at least contesting for a place in the top 12.
Teams that finish last in each of the four contesting pools will compete for 13th to 16th place.
Zimbabwe, who finished eighth in their debut Netball World Cup appearance in Liverpool, England, four years ago, would be out to avoid the ignominy of finishing outside the top 12.
Their initial target was finishing in the top four.
Mathematically, if the Gems win against Tonga by at least 18 goals and progress to the next round, they will still have the chance to finish in the top four, but that will require a flawless performance and other results to go their way.
Basically, the top three teams from Pool A and B will form Group F, with each of the three teams from the same group carrying the points and goals they would have picked against other qualifying teams from the group stage.
They will only play against the qualifying teams from the other group, with the top two progressing to the semi-finals.
The top three teams from Pool C and D will form Group G.
Given those scenarios, the Gems would have to work very hard if they are to nail a place in the semi-finals.
But first things first — they will need to beat Tonga by at least 18 goals.
Their captain, Felisitus Kwangwa, acknowledged as much.
“We have narrowed the chance for ourselves with this defeat to Fiji. We controlled the first quarter well but then we lapsed in key moments,” said Kwangwa.
“It was a match that we should have won. They converted their chances and we failed to do justice to ours. If you look at it, we were losing concentration in key moments and we handed the advantage to them.
“I don’t think we underrated them. Maybe we played a high-intensity match against Australia on Friday and, at the end of the day, we were still feeling tired. It’s just a maybe.
“But we should have done better. Anyway, we turn our focus to the match against Tonga. It’s a must-win . . . We came here targeting a top-four finish and we still have a slim chance of making it.”
The Gems looked lost under the chilly and drizzly Cape Town weather, as they made blunders one would only expect from amateur teams.
Facing a team ranked five places below them, and from a country with a population of less than a million people, the Gems looked poised to claim their first win in a World Cup being staged on African soil for the first time.
Hundreds of Zimbabwean fans cheered them on from the stands but all that failed to drive them to victory.
Online Reporter