Jani was in fine form in front of goal, as an injury-ravaged Barbados fell to another loss.

Zimbabwe had won the hearts of many neutrals with their performances in the competition so far, and came into the game with the possibility of earning a top-six finish at their first ever World Cup still alive.

By contrast, Barbados had just a solitary win to their name, picked up in their opening fixture of the tournament against Singapore.

This was the first ever World Cup meeting between the teams – both known as the Gems – and it was the Barbadians who made the quickest start, racing into a 4-1 lead early on.

Both sets of shooters were finding the target with apparent ease, and mid-court pressure allowed Zimbabwe – again roared on by their passionate band of supporters – to get back into the game, eventually levelling at 7-7.

The shooters on both sides all had unblemished records as the Zim Gems edged ahead, but it was the strong, composed presence of Jani at goal shooter for Zimbabwe who was becoming increasingly dominant.

Her accuracy, combined with fantastic work by her team-mates in their defensive third, allowed Zimbabwe to push out to 12-8 before Sheniqua Thomas recorded the first missed attempt of the match after ten minutes.

Mistakes were beginning to creep into the Barbadian play, with too many passes being over-thrown and disappearing off the back of the court.

Jani, who ended the quarter at 100%, ensured they were punished as the first 15 minutes finished 17-11 to the Zimbabweans.

The gap remained at six through the opening stages of a scrappy second quarter, but it wasn’t long before Jani was pushing Zimbabwe forward again.

The lead was 23-14 when Zimbabwe suffered an injury blow.

Perpetua Siyachitema suffered a heavy fall and went off to be replaced by Ndaizivei Madzikangwa, who came on to win her 50th international cap.

The change momentarily threw the Zim Gems, as Ursula Ndlovu registered their first missed attempt of the match.

Jani’s still-faultless shooting performance was being matched by the displays by her team-mates across the court though, and the Zimbabweans went in at half time 33-19 up.

The third quarter was marred by an injury to Barbados centre Rieah Holder, who went down heavily and left the arena via a wheelchair.

She was replaced by Amanda Knight, and though she and her team-mates ensured the closest quarter of the match, they still couldn’t stop the service to Jani ending in the inevitable consequence of further Zimbabwean goals.

The Zim Gems ended the quarter having grown their lead slightly – 48-32.

If Barbados suspected their luck was out, that suspicion will have grown during the final quarter, as Tonisha Rock-Yaw and the excellent Shonette Azore-Bruce collided with each other trying to intercept a pass into the goal third, leading to Azore-Bruce also going off injured.

Zimbabwe took full advantage of their opponents’ misfortune to extend their lead throughout the final quarter, chalking up a 66-41 win, as Jani ended with 51 goals from her 53 attempts.

The Zim Gems are now level with Malawi on four points, and play their African rivals in their final Group F game on Thursday.

The group winners, along with the second and third-placed finishers in each of the four groups, now move forward to Group F or G, where the tournament’s top 12 teams will continue their battle to secure a semi-final berth.

The competition’s remaining teams: Sri Lanka, Singapore, Fiji and Samoa, now form their own group – Group E – where they will play in a round-robin format to determine who will contest the matches to decide 13^th and 14^th place, and 15^th and 16^th place.

For the teams in Group F (Australia, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Malawi and Barbados) and Group G (Jamaica, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, England, Uganda and Scotland), previous results against teams within their new groups will carry over, ensuring that the teams who topped the preliminaries stage one groups go into the next phase with an advantage.

Zimbabwe plays New Zealand at 1000hrs CAT today (15 July 2019)

The top two teams in both groups will qualify for the semi-finals, while the remaining eight will contest matches to determine their overall placing (5^th-12^th) depending on their finishing position in Group F or G.

In the battle to decide who would finish second to Australia in the group, the tussle went right down to the wire, with the lead changing hands multiple times before the Zim Gems held their nerve to edge over the line and spark wild celebrations in the crowd.

Northern Ireland started brightly, briskly taking a 5-1 lead in an opening period which gave no indication of the seesaw nature of the rest of the contest which was about to unfold.

As Zimbabwe clawed their way back into the game, captain Caroline O’Hanlon dictated play for Northern Ireland, working tirelessly to provide opportunities for Noleen Armstrong and Emma Magee.

At the other end, Joice Takaidza was keeping the scoreboard ticking over for Zimbabwe, although her attacking partner Ursula Ndlovu was struggling to find space in the shooting circle, and Northern Ireland finished the quarter 15-12 up.

Zimbabwe’s defence tightened in the second quarter, with Armstrong less clinical – she missed two opportunities as Zimbabwe reduced the deficit to just a single goal.  

The atmosphere – already electric – continued to build as the two sides traded blows in what was becoming one of the best games of the tournament so far.

Despite the rising pressure though, Takaidza was a calming, composed presence in the Zimbabwean attack, as the Zim Gems edged in front for the first time in the contest shortly before half time.

They ended the second quarter by reversing the score of the first, meaning that for the first game in the tournament half-time was reached with the scores level – 27-27.

The spine-tingling atmosphere continued into the second half of the contest, but it was Northern Ireland who settled to their task better, pulling away by four goals in the third quarter.

The evenly-matched nature of the two teams ensured that the lead didn’t last long though, and thanks in the main to the accuracy of Takaidza, Zimbabwe clawed their way back to even the scores again.

In the final minute of the quarter, the Zim Gems edged ahead again through substitute Sharon Bwanali, only for Magee to level proceedings at 39-39 going into the final quarter.

The back-and-forth nature of an absorbing contest continued deep into the final quarter, with Zimbabwe getting themselves just in front as the closing minutes approached.

With five minutes to go, Takaidza took their lead back out to two, and followed that up with a fantastic one-handed take and composed finish to ensure that the pressure mounted on Northern Ireland.

Magee responded by drawing the Warriors level at 49-49, but they couldn’t capitalise on having the next centre pass, giving away a contact foul as they approached the Zimbabwean circle.

Both teams then traded errors as the atmosphere reached fever pitch, and a fumble by the Northern Irish attackers proved crucial as Zimbabwe re-took the lead through Ndlovu with 80 seconds left.

Fittingly, it was Takaidza who then all-but ended the contest, putting her side 51-49 ahead – a lead which they held on to for the 55 seconds which remained, to claim a famous win.

Zimbabwe’s Ursula Ndlovu said:

“I wanted to cry at the end! I’m just happy – I don’t know what to say! The is one of the most challenging games I’ve played – it was very tough. The Zimbabwe fans – I want to say that I love them all! We try to make them proud.

“I’m so proud because our supporters are representing our country. There are so many supporters – they boost our confidence and we can’t disappoint them.”

Northern Ireland captain Caroline O’Hanlon said:

“We’re pretty gutted. We gave it everything but we made too many errors. We made errors across the four quarters and they were costly in the end – the game was there for the taking and we should have closed it out.”