Africa-Press – Malawi. Malawi netball icon Mwawi Kumwenda made the difference for her Australia Suncorp Super Netball League side Melbourne Vixens with a Player-of-the-Match display in a nail-biting 66-64 win over Queensland Firebirds on Saturday.
The win saw Vixens return to the top on the ladder with 24 points from eight matches. Trailing Firebirds for most of the game, Vixens dug deep in the final term to upstage their opponents with some huge defensive wins and Kumwenda’s super shooting.
The former Kukoma Diamonds superstar brought out her best in the match, scoring 50 times from 54 attempts. A supernetball.com.au report also acknowledged Kumwenda’s outstanding displays which won her the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.
Kumwenda stemmed some of the bleeding late in the second stanza before firing on all cylinders in the second half, which Queensland started poorly. “Hannah Mundy was injected off the bench and into the centre where she had the better of Queensland skipper Kim Ravaillion as the match wore on, while the Firebirds progressively had no answers for Kumwenda,” part of the report reads.
Vixens’ website acknowledged Kumwenda’s huge contribution to the win in its report. “Austin and MJ [acronym for Kumwenda’s first names Mwawi and Jacinta] started finding space inside the circle against Eboni Usoro- Brown and Ruby Bakewell- Doran reducing the margin to two.
“Kumwenda nailed the leveller while Weston reeled in a huge defensive rebound down the other end of the court,” reads part of the report. Kumwenda said she felt great to inspire Vixens to the win and walk away with the MVP award.
“The game was very tough. Coming from behind in the second half to overturn proceedings was not easy. Things worked out for us because the team played well and I am very happy with the girls’ performance,” she said.
For More News And Analysis About Malawi Follow Africa-Press
