Latest News
Jamaica focus on New Zealand
August 03, 2023
Jamaica's Sunshine Girls will face New Zealand in a top-of-the-table Group G Netball World Cup second-round clash in South Africa today.
Yesterday, the Sunshine Girls secured a place in the semi-finals after they brushed aside Caribbean rivals Trinidad and Tobago 89-26 to maintain their perfect start to the tournament.
Jamaica join Australia, New Zealand and England in Saturday's semi-finalists.
Jamaica's captain Jhaniele Fowler said the intention against New Zealand is to focus on their goal.
"I reckon we just play our game and be disciplined on defence and disciplined on attack, and we should be fine," she said.
She also thought that yesterday, they executed some of their objectives for their opponents today.
"We went out to work on our connections, limiting our errors and also our contacts and doing that allowed us to stay in the game," she said.
The Commonwealth Games silver medallists produced another dominant display to ease past their Caribbean arch-rivals.
They started ruthlessly and took a 20-6 lead after the first quarter. They didn't let up in the second quarter, winning it 24-4 to give Jamaica a 44-10 halftime lead.
Although Trinidad were a little better after the break, Jamaica maintained their intensity throughout, taking the third set 25-9 and the fourth 20-7 for a comprehensive victory.
Romelda Aiken-George led the scoring for Jamaica with 37 of 42 attempts, Fowler, who had limited minutes, followed with 20 from 24, and Shanice Beckford had 15 from 17.
Player of the Match Nicole Dixon-Rochester said they defended and attacked as a team and that it was a rehearsal for some very tough games awaiting them.
"It was a team defence and team attack right through. When we work as a team, we see the result," she said.
"Some of the things we need to work on, we tried to execute it in today's game, knowing that tomorrow's (today) game will be tougher and the other games going forward. So we needed to execute the things we need to work on and build on," she said.
