Divas keen to beat Botswana in classification matches

National women’s netball side, Kenya Divas will look to beat Botswana to finish fifth at the ongoing World Cup qualifiers in Pretoria. 

The Joseph Makau-coached side lost two of their three matches in the group stage, picking a 52-36 victory on Wednesday against Eswatini in a match Beatrice Kabucho was named the player of the match. 

Before that victory, Kenya had gone down 47-30 to Zambia and 72-31 to Malawi and with that their chance to qualify for the World Cup set for Cape Town next year was out the window. 

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Both sides were looking for their first victory in Pool B, so the match was to be a tightly fought contest. Kenya started the match with a high intensity and pace to their play and scored the first four goals of the match.

The first question ended 14-11 in favour of the Easg Afrucans. Kenya looked strong in attack in the second quarter with Eswatini struggling to prevent the feeds into the shooting circle as Kabucho held her space well and utlisied the height advantage she had.

Eswatini just couldn’t stop the flow of goals like they did in the first quarter, with the half-time score Kenya 33 – 21 Eswatini. 

Despite making changes, Eswatini still trailed 45-29 at the end of the third quarter as Kenya went on to win 52-36. 

Only four teams qualify for the global championship from the continental qualifiers, two nations already have qualification. 

"Botswana is really hungry for a win. They suffered disappointing defeats to Namibia and Kenya last year and they are out for revenge. 

They successfully exerted their vengeance against Namibia on Wednesday but we will not let it happen to us. We will be going out to confirm that we are better than them now that we have found our rythm," said coach Makau while confirming that Kenya is out of the qualification bracket. 

This is the second time Kenya will be participating in the World Cup qualifiers in the recent past, having made the 2018 competition but lost all matches then. The championship was held in Zambia. 

However, Makau's charges attoned for their sins with a better showing in the Africa Cup in Namibia last year, beating highly-ranked Botswana 46-45 in the championship that served as the Commonwealth Games qualifiers.