Netball Nations Cup: Four from Four for terrific Tanzania under Mary Waya

Tanzania has produced an outstanding performance, trouncing Malaysia 61-36 at the six-team Netball Nations cup in Singapore on Tuesday. The win follows its 16-goal win over an improved Sri Lanka team.

The scorelines against the two Asian nations also give us some indication of where 19th-ranked Tanzania might sit in the rankings if it had the funds to play more matches. Malaysia lost 62-40 to world number 9 Barbados and 66-35 to 5th ranked Malawi at last year’s World Netball Championship.

Tanzania defeated Sri Lanka 67-51 on Sunday, while at the World Championships 12th ranked Samoa edged-out Sri Lanka 56-53 and 11th ranked Northern Ireland beat the Sri Lankans 65-56.

Therefore, if Tanzania were to keep up this form, it would appear (on paper at least) they would be a top 8 team.

New Tanzanian Coach and former Malawi goal attack Mary Waya said, “I am happy with the team, they have given their all. We go into every game playing a winning strategy and I think we can win this week if we really believe that we can do it. The key thing today was our defence, they did a great job and our shooters were also great.”

On Wednesday, Tanzania beat the home side Singapore 51-34 thereby qualifying for the cup final even before they play their final round robin match against Namibia on Friday.