SA Women’s hockey v Zimbabwe
The South African women’s side maintained their unbeaten run at the African Hockey Championships with a 6-0 win over Zimbabwe at the Randburg Hockey Stadium on Tuesday evening.
South Africa celebrate. (Photo by Ziyaad Douglas/Gallo Images)
Although it was a case of job done for Sheldon Rostron’s side they have yet to hit their straps at this event as they squandered a number of opportunities against one of the so-called minnows and in all fairness should have taken their goal tally well into double figures.
Some will argue that it was the dogged defence of the Zimbabwean side that kept the hosts at bay but the gulf in class was clear to see and the South Africans tended to be wasteful with their opportunities.
After going into the break at the end of the first quarter even at 0-0, Lillian du Plessis broke the deadlock in the first minute after the break, first helping to win the penalty corner before slotting home a drag-flick.
The lead was extended by Jayde Mayne after a very good passage of play, a clever attack and use of deflections from the top of the circle allowing the forward to pop the ball into an open goal to make it 2-0.
But the time the halftime hooter sounded the home team were 3-0 up thanks to Nicole Walraven.
They enjoyed the lion’s share of possession once again in the second half but had a number of opportunities snuffed out and it took a while before Candica Manuel added a fourth goal to the score.
Given a bit of space at the top of the circle, Illse Davids delivered a powerful poke to make it 5-0 before Du Plessis added her second of the game, a good run by Bernadette Coston on the baseline sucked in the defence and her teammate was waiting at the far post to pop the ball into the goal.
The women’s side will be in action again when they take on Kenya on Thursday.
