Geophrey Sifani Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe men’s hockey team won their second game at the Africa Hockey Championships by hammering Botswana 19-0 at the Randburg Sports Club in Johannesburg yesterday. Zimbabwe’s win came a day after they were involved in an entertaining nine-goal thriller against Nambia, who they beat 6-3.
Matthew Williams had a dream match against Namibia, netting four of Zimbabwe’s six goals, with Cydreck Starch and Warwick Ullrich scoring one each. Williams netted six goals against Botswana to shoot to the top of the tournament’s scorers’ chart with 10 goals.
Coach Collin Williams’ men seem to have woken up from the shock attack that saw them being mauled 0-16 by hosts South Africa in the opening match last Friday.
Zimbabwe need to win their final pool match against Ghana tomorrow to advance to the play offs.
Coach Williams said he was not satisfied with the margin they won by.
“I’ll take the win of 19, but we left five or six more goals out there. For building some momentum, it was good for the lads. The fluency was good in patches. When we play Ghana, we’ve to play for the full 60 minutes and create pressure by keeping the ball for longer periods of time. Our boys certainly have the ability to upset Ghana; it should be a close affair. For me, it’s a must-win game,” said Williams.
In the women’s category, Zimbabwe were thumped 0-6 by South Africa yesterday. The Zimbabwe women had started promisingly by routing Tanzania 9-0 last Friday. That was, however, the last time they tasted victory as they went on to lose 0-2 to Kenya on Saturday and 0-4 to Ghana on Monday.