By Brian Bariyo Tumuramye
London: The Uganda National Team, She Cranes has defeated Zimbabwe 58-47 to finish seventh in the Netball World Cup, that ends today 21 July 2019 in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Participating for the first time in the world Cup, the gems of Zimbabwe piled pressure on the She Cranes in the battle for 7 and 8th position, in which the Cranes emerged a better side.
Uganda dominated the game with the bearing of Mary Nuba and Peace Proscovia who served as Goal Attacker and Goal Scorer in the first quarter, Stella Oyella and Peace in the second and third quarters and the return of Nuba and Oyella in the final quarter.
Zimbabwean defenders Karume and Nkwanga challenged the Ugandan girls with less than nine minutes to the end of the second quarter but found difficulty breaking the Peace-Oyella combination, which was crafted with long passes from the midcourt controlled by centre Betty Kiiza. Uganda stretched the lead by 9 goals, up from 3 in the first quarter.
Zimbabwe returned to court with a lot of vigour to close the gap in the third quarter and had closed the gap by 4 goals after nine minutes. But Uganda’s goalkeeper Stella Nanfuka successfully intercepted some of the passes that could have sealed Uganda’s fate to maintain the lead at 45 against 37 by end of the quarter.
The combination of Oyella and Nuba in the final quarter presented the ultimate score of 13 -10 and the game ended 11 goals apart. Oyella, declared the player of match lauded her teammates for stepping up to the gems of Zimbabwe to maintain Uganda’s position in the world rankings.
“In Africa, things are not good. We are not well-off. We had many problems at home but we had to maintain our position,” Oyella said during the post-match interview.
Despite three losses in the past four days to Malawi, Jamaica and South Africa, the head coach, Vincent Kiwanuka says the team has gained a lot of experience, exposure and is optimistic that some of the players will have several opportunities to play as professionals. The team has moved a place up from 8th in the 2015 World Cup to 7th.
