THE Zimbabwe national netball team fell short in their World Cup opener against 11-time world champions Australia losing 86-30 at the Cape Town International Convention Center in South Africa.
Heading into the tie, the Gems, ranked 13th in the world, were hoping to tear up the form book with a victory against the favourites in their first Pool-A encounter, ranked first in the world.
However, the Gems found the going tough and struggled to contain the pace and physic of their opponents and lost by a bigger margin than the 73-37 defeat they suffered when the two sides met at the World Cup in England four years ago.
On Friday, the Gems seemed to have enough steam to compete physically before falling short. The Ropafadzo Mutsauki-coached side struggled with their passing, failing to stay in control when on the ball.
A stray pass early into the tie allowed Australia to gain an early advantage which they held onto after taking the first quarter 20-11 before heading into the break with a 41-18 lead.
The Australians continued to dominate and stretched their advantage to 62-24 by the time they hit the third quarter.
Gems Coach Mutsauki gave most of the well-supported Gems a World Cup debut run, with the side managing to string together good moves.
Mutsauki and the players hope to have picked up valuable lessons ahead of their match against Fiji at 9 am this Saturday. The Gems’ opponents in the next game lost 56-51 to Tonga in the other Pool-A match.
