Silver Ferns 76 Botswana 20
KEY POINTS:
The Silver Ferns finished pool play at the world netball championship in Auckland today with a dispassionate and somewhat flat 76-20 dissection of Botswana.
The Africans, skilled but slight, were never able to push New Zealand, who ran freely and scored with monotonous regularity to secure yet another
one-sided win. Although the result was never in doubt, the Silver Ferns never managed to reach the heights of yesterday's game against Wales, when they turned on a more focused, and ferocious, performance.
The win puts New Zealand at the top of pool A, and set for a quarterfinal on Thursday against the losers of tonight's England-South Africa match.
The Silver Ferns started goal defence Sheryl Scanlan in her 50th match for New Zealand and she relished the opportunity, hunting in tandem with goalkeep Casey Williams to pick up a wealth of possession as Botswana struggled right from the start.
At the other end of the court, Maria Tutaia earned her first world championship start, and took a little time to settle. But by the end of the first quarter, the Silver Ferns had eased out to a 21-4 lead, and Tutaia was looking more assured in her combination with shooter Irene van Dyk.
Laura Langman again started at centre and looks to be running freely and with increasing confidence, driving well on attack and harassing the Botswana midcourt to pick up numerous tips and intercepts and keep the flow of goals coming. She had been in doubt for the tournament earlier with a stress fracture in her foot.
Maree Bowden also impressed at centre, her speed onto the ball and bullet passing a real bonus as the Silver Ferns attack sliced through Botswana's midcourt.
The Africans never gave up, working the ball around as much as they were allowed to, and every goal was greeted with enthusiastic applause. But some suffocating Silver Ferns full-court defence forced too much lateral passing, the turnovers kept on coming and New Zealand led 45-10 at halftime.
Coach Ruth Aitken continued her use of the bench at halftime, Jodi Te Huna coming on at goal shoot for van Dyk, Joline Henry moving to goal defence and Julie Seymour coming on at wing defence.
Van Dyk was her usual accurate self, sinking 33 from 34 attempts for a 97 per cent success rate. Tutaia also finished with only one miss from the first half, sinking 12 from 13 attempts.
The final quarter saw Tutaia replaced by Paula Griffin, and captain Adine Wilson come on for Bowden at wing attack. By then the only question of real interest was how high the Silver Ferns' score could mount, as they stretched away for a 60-12 lead with 15 minutes remaining.
As expected New Zealand finished top of their pool A with a 76-20 win over Botswana.
Skilled but slight, the Africans were unable to push the defending champions.
However New Zealand's performance was rather flat compared with yesterday's against Wales.
Coach Ruth Aitken rotated her squad, using different combinations but they still had too much for Botswana.
Sheryl Scanlan at goal defence and goalkeep Casey Williams picked up a wealth of possession.
At the other end of the court, Maria Tutaia earned her first world championship start, and took a little time to settle. But by the end of the first quarter, the Silver Ferns had eased out to a 21-4 lead, and Tutaia was looking more assured in her combination with shooter Irene van Dyk.
Laura Langman again started at centre and looks to be running freely and with increasing confidence. She had been in doubt for the tournament earlier with a stress fracture in her foot.
Maree Bowden also impressed at centre, her speed onto the ball and bullet passing a real bonus for the side.
- NZPA
