The Zimbabwe national netball team will face Botswana on Tuesday in a third and fourth place play off of the Africa Netball Championships after they failed to make it to the finals despite defeating Eswatini 58-48 in Gaborone on Monday.
Going into the Eswatini match, the Gems needed to win by a goal margin of at least 20 but they were slow out of the blocks which cost them the spot in the semis.
Zambia and Namibia, who took second spot due to a better goal difference over Zimbabwe, will play the final.
Eswatini and Kenya will clash for the fifth and sixth position.
On Monday Kelly Myambo made it to the first seven due to the absence of Elizabeth Mushore.
The first quarter ended on 15-14 with Zimbabwe trailing after a catalogue of errors.
Tafadzwa Mawango partnered with Ursula Ndlovu in the goal shooting circle with the former netting nine goals whilst the latter was on five.
There wasn't much improvement from the Gems in the second quarter as they went into the half time break on 29-28 in favour of the Gems.
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Positional changes worked well for the Gems who started to pull away.
Vice captain Claris Kwaramba shifted to wing-defence from center position, Beaulla Hlungwane stepping into the centre position whilst Kelly Myambo moved from wing-defence to goal-keeper, replacing Tanaka Makusha.
Myambo made a commendable performance for someone who was making her debut appearance.
The Gems however managed to stretch the lead with just two goals in the third quarter as Eswatini kept fighting as it finished 39-41.
It was only in the final quarter when Zimbabwe started to show a winning spirit, with Mawango scoring 11 goals in that quarter while Ndlovu was on five before.
