writer : kareem el refaey

Wednesday night saw the final installment of the three match series between England and Malawi, and yet again it was a breathtaking game. We caught up with England captain, Ama Agbeze and Malawi Player of the Series, Mwai Kumwenda for their thoughts on the match and the series as a whole.

The Genting Arena in Birmingham hosted the final match between the England Roses and the Malawi Queens. England had already rapped up the series with the two previous wins at the Copperbox in London. However, this had no baring on how closely fought this game was.

Malawi set the pace early on and raced ahead and led throughout the game. The Queens went eight goals up after the first quarter before being pegged back to a just one goal lead at half time.

The second half saw both sides trade goal for goal, with an average of two goals being scored a minute right throughout the game. It was Malawi who still remained one goal in front at the end of quarter three with a goal being converted right at the end.

This led to a nail biting, tense final quarter which once again saw both sides trade goals. England edged in front towards the end and capitalised on some stray passes in the Malawi centre.

Final score – England Roses 62 – 60 Malawi 

Player of the match – Natalie Haythornthwaite

Officials – Dave Brown, Marie-Louw Van der Merwe, Alison Davies

Player of the Series for Malawi – Mwai Kumwenda 

Overall Player of the Series – Ama Agbeze

After the game we were fortunate enough to speak with England captain Ama Agbeze who believed the squad’s passion and determination was a key factor to the comeback victory:

‘We were down and out after the first quarter and a bit shell-shocked but our passion and determination is what got us back into the game.’ 

Agbeze reflected on the series as a whole, stating the fairly unfamiliar squad had gelled very well:

‘We implemented a game plan with just one training session, which shows that the squad had gelled very well.’ 

Of course both sides will be meeting again next April at the Commonwealth Games, in which Agbeze believes it was good practice to play the ‘unorthodox’ Malawi side prior to their meeting in the Gold Coast.

‘It’s good experience for us, it’s good to have video footage of the matches to look back on which will help our preparation for the Commonwealth Games.’

We were also fortunate to catch up with Malawi star shooter Mwai Kumwenda, who despite the recent results was in a positive mood upon reflecting on the last couple of weeks.

‘We have learned a lot as a group. We achieved more from playing against a team like England and we have not played much test matches recently’. 

Kumwenda received the Player of the Series award for Malawi, and was in optimistic spirits ahead of the upcoming domestic season and of course the Commonwealth Games.

‘It’s good to play against England and we are looking forward to playing them in the Commonwealth Games.’

Both sides will return to international action early next year as England will feature in the Quad Series in January and Malawi will be a part of the Taini Jamison series in March.