Cape Town - Three goals inside six minutes in the second chukka and three goals inside six minutes in the third chukka earned the Investec South Africa women’s hockey team a 6-0 win over Chile in the third Test at Hartleyvale in Cape Town Monday.
The victory means SA take an unbeatable 2-1 lead in the four-Test series. The girls in green and gold won the first Test 4-2 while Chile won the second Test 2-0. The final Test left is on Tuesday at 6.30pm,
SA brought back the considerable experience of keeper Sanani Mangisa, defenders Lisa Deetlefs and Marcelle Manson, and strikers Jade Mayne plus captain for the day, Sulette Damons.
Throwing the ball around to good effect from the outset, SA looked on song and Damons’ extreme speed was proving to be a defender’s nightmare. The slippery Manuela Urroz was Chile’s strike weapon and she, too, was asking questions of the SA defence, but much of the first-chukka action broke down outside the respective strike zones as tenacious defence held sway. However, that soon changed.
One minute into the second chukka (16th minute of the match) the crowd came alight when midfielder Illse Davids went unchallenged into the strike zone and picked her spot with a crisp strike, the Chileans backing away, not for the first time in the series (1-0).
Hardly two minutes later (18th) neat SA play led to a Dirkie Chamberlain goal (2-0) and Chile would have been dead and buried 60-odd seconds later had captain Camila Caram not miraculously pulled Shelley Russell’s attempt off the line.
Two SA penalty corners came and went before Candice Manuel finished accurately in the 21st minute (3-0). The girls in green and gold were on fire, netting superb three goals inside six minutes.
Five minutes after half-time (35th of the match), Lilian du Plessis got on the scoresheet with a well-timed PC drag-flick and at 4-0 with 25 minutes to go, SA were running riot. A Damons effort was cleared off the goalline before Davids fed fellow Capetonian Manuel for 5-0 in the 38th minute. In the 41st minute, penalty corner injector Erin Hunter followed up Du Plessis’ disguised PC shot/pass to tip the ball home and SA were 6-0 up.
Once again it was a three-goal blitz inside six minutes.
There was lots of goalmouth action in the final chukka, the Chileans playing much better, but there was no further addition to the score.
The mammoth Cape Town Summer series ends on February 2 at Hartleyvale.
SA TEAM
Starting: Sanani Mangisa (GK), Marcelle Manson, Lisa Deetlefs, Erin Hunter, Nicolene Terblanche, Illse Davids, Shelley Russell, Jade Mayne, Lilian du Plessis, Dirkie Chamberlain, Sulette Damons (capt). Rolling subs: Phume Mbande (GK), Nicole Walraven, Christine Roos, Line Malan, Candice Manuel, Tiffany Jones, Quanita Bobbs.