Despite a nail-biting contest, South Africa extended their four-match winning streak over Namibia to 2-0 in the series with a second straight win at Elkanah House.
The match was extra emotional for the home side as both Ongeziwe Mali and Marlise van Tonder marked 50 caps. It was also a memorable debut for Baylee Engelke, as she was playing her first senior international match.
South Africa didn’t take long to get going. Already in such form, Pearce struck the post with yet another perfect drag flick to give the hosts the lead.
But Namibia was not going to bend.
The visitors broke through South Africa’s attack and were able to effectively close the area and create challenges for the hosts in the conversion of possession to clear goals. South Africa’s defence held up well and kept Namibia at bay from penalty corners as well.
The match was tense at half-time as the score was 1-0.
South Africa pressed the attack after the interval and almost doubled the lead when Kayla de Waal pitted herself against Namibia’s goalkeeper Petro Stoffberg from a penalty corner. Her team hung on thanks to Stoffberg’s brilliant save.
However, de Waal’s perseverance finally resulted in success.
Stephanie Botha had done well to build up the lead, and de Waal was cool under pressure to finish the game with a clinical finish and a 2-0 lead. It effectively shattered Namibia’s resolve and gave them another big win.
But even when they lose, South Africa might feel that they could have done it by a larger margin. They had a few good prospects to come up with but just didn’t have the killer finish to make it more of a game.
However, the battle is now over, and the momentum is firmly in their favor as they go into Test 3. Namibia have to react fast or else they will miss the chance of winning the series in the final game.
South Africa will get their final shot at the series on Thursday at 17:00 at Elkanah House.
