By Roneil Walcott

Copyright newsday

Trinidad and Tobago’s under-21 netballers went down for the second straight day during their 2025 Netball Youth World Cup campaign when they suffered a 65-29 loss to a clinical and sharp Malawi team in their pool D matchup at the Europa Sports Complex in Gibraltar on September 21.

On the opening day of action on September 20, coach Kalifa McCollin’s team were involved in a hearty battle with Fiji but ultimately fell to a 53-40 loss. A day later, as they encountered a Malawi team which were on a bye on the opening day, the young Calypso Girls were no match for their counterparts, who asserted their dominance early. In the first quarter, TT seemed overawed and overworked by a Malawi team that passed the ball with real speed and authority. At the end of the first quarter, Malawi jumped out to a big 22-8 lead, forcing McCollin to make some changes before the start of the second quarter as she tried to change her team’s fortunes.

One of those changes saw Jenicia Goodridge inserted to play the centre position. And her play, coupled with TT’s more aggressive and bolder approach, saw the Caribbean team put up a much better showing in the second quarter. Malawi still took a 32-17 lead to the half, but TT were just edged 10-9 in the period to give McCollin and her troops an inkling of hope in the contest, particularly with captain Maikea Bramble finding her range on the offensive end.

In the third quarter, though, the Malawians seemed to flick a switch and their speed of play and the accuracy of their goal-shoot and goal-attack options just seemed too much for the TT defence to handle. By the end of the third quarter, the Malawians were well on their way to victory as they opened up a big 51-25 lead. By the start of the fourth quarter, the result was hardly in doubt and Malawi stamped home their dominance by adding 14 more points in the quarter to run away with the lopsided 65-29 result.

Also in pool D action on September 21, Fiji got their second straight win as they stormed past Barbados 66-34. Meanwhile, in pool C, Jamaica showed their class when they defeated Tonga 66-43.

On September 22, TT will hope to turn around their fortunes when they face South Africa. In their first game on September 20, South Africa put pool D on notice when they romped to an emphatic 102-27 win over the Bajans. The top two teams from the four groups will qualify for the quarterfinals, while the other 12 teams will vie for places ninth to 20th.

Prior to the team’s departure for Gibraltar, McCollin said South Africa were tipped as pool D favourites. However, she said her charges were relishing the chance to upset the apple cart.

“South Africa are the ones earmarked to be at the top of the group. But it’s always good to upset the norm and the status quo,” McCollin said, in a September 11 interview. “I can say it’s going to be very competitive and will come down to who wants it more and which team make the least mistakes.” Based on the evidence thus far, it will take a Herculean effort from to get into the win column against the South African ladies.