Netballers pushed hard by Uganda
The New Zealand netballers scored their second win of the Games, but were pushed harder than many expected by Uganda.
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New Zealand were pushed all the way by a skilled and determined Ugandan team, ranked sixth in the world, and were mighty relieved to get the 58-50 victory in the end. At halftime alarm bells were sounding with the score only 28-25 in New Zealand's favour and previous Commonwealth Games netball nightmares still fresh in the memory.
Coach Noeline Taurua used her full complement of players and was particularly pleased to give rising young defender Catherine Hall her first taste of Games action. Hall made an impressive showing after returning from injury.
'Overall, it was a little bit disappointing for us at times,’' said New Zealand captain Karin Burger. 'Every time we started increasing the lead, we let them come back into it, so we’re going to have to look at what we can do better on that front. Uganda are a quality side and they’ve showed at this tournament what they can do and really brought it to us today.’
A feature of the match was the clash between towering Uganda shooter Mary Cholhok, standing at 2.01m, and Kelly Jackson, who were team-mates in the Australian league this year.
Cholhok landed 30 of her 33 attempts and team-mate Shadiah Nassanga 19 of 20. For New Zealand, Grace Nweke scored with 19 of 20 attempts, Martina Salmon 16 of 20, Amelia Walmsley, making her first appearance in Glasgow, 14 of 16, and Georgia Heffernan 9 of 10.
New Zealand's next matches are against Wales and Trindidad and Tobago.