Jamaica's Sunshine Girls produced another strong showing to make it two-from-two at the Vitality Netball World Cup when they defeated Wales 75-40 in another lopsided affair in Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday.
While it was not the most convincing performance to follow up their record 105-25 opening win over Sri Lanka, the number four-ranked Jamaicans did enough to secure their sixth win over the ninth-ranked Wales in what was their seventh meeting.
Captain and ace shooter Jhaniele Fowler again led from the front scoring 39 goals from 41, with Romelda Aiken-George, who took over second-half duties, sinking 19 goals from her 21 attempts. Goal attacks Shanice Beckford and Rebekah Robinson contributed five and 12 goals from six and 14 attempts respectively.
With the win, the Jamaicans, who are aiming to break a lengthy medal drought dating back to 2007 when the country last won one of its three World Cup bronze medals, moved up to four points and are assured of one of three spots to the next round.
Head coach Connie Francis opted for a completely different starting seven on this occasion with Shamera Sterling, Latanya Wilson and Jodi-Ann Ward in defence. Nicole Dixon-Rochester started centre court, as Khadijah Williams and Shanice Beckford occupied the wing attack and goal-attack positions behind big shooter Fowler.
Jamaica forced three turnovers off Wales' centre pass and, as such, rushed into a five-goal lead before the opponents responded. Despite Wales finding an early rhythm of their own to gradually close the gap at 9-6, the Sunshine Girls accelerated late on to end the quarter with a 12-goal lead at 23-11.
The Sunshine Girls' tempo in the early exchanges of the second quarter was a stark contrast to what it was in the first, but when they eventually got going –particularly at the defensive end where Sterling and company had a number of deflections and interceptions –it brought Fowler's accuracy into play, as they went on to outscore Wales 21-12 for a 44-23 half-time lead.
However, Francis and her team were left with much to figure out, as they struggled to maintain that tempo with their usual speed and flair dropping significantly after combination changes in the second half of the encounter.
In fact, they only mustered 31 goals across the last two quarters which is fairly low by their standards, especially coming off a record high performance against Sri Lanka.
Though they scored high at 90 percent, the Sunshine Girls conceded 16 turnovers and that remains a cause for concern for Fowler, heading into a much tougher contest against the number five-ranked host South Africa at 11:00am Jamaica time, on Sunday.
“I think the entire team played well, the fact that we had changes going throughout the quarters and when everyone went in the just slot in and did their part which is really good. But yeah, we have to make sure that we limit our turnovers and also tighten up on some of our contacts,” Fowler said in a post-game interview.
Meanwhile, Sterling, who was named player of the game, said they always expected a tougher contest against Wales.
“Coming off the win against Sri Lanka and then coming to play Wales, which is a more structured and organised team, we know it was going to be more competitive and we were prepared for that. So, it was just a matter of trying to tweak and fix some of the little things that we need to do,” Sterling noted.
Article courtesy of SportsMax https://sportsmax.tv/other-sports/column2/netball/item/124795-sunshine-girls-register-second-win-on-the-trot-with-75-40-blowout-of-wales
