Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls went down to world number one Australia today to miss out on a place in the final at the women’s netball world cup in South Africa.
In a close and enthralling battle inside the Cape town convention center the Australian Diamonds came out 57-54 winners, despite captain Jhaniele Fowler scoring 46 and Shanice Beckford 8.
the teams battled to a 14-14 scoreline at the end of the first quarter and were locked at 29-all at half time after they scored 15 each in the second quarter.
The Diamonds outscored Jamaica 13-11 in the 3rd quarter which ended with Australia holding a narrow 42-40 lead.
However in the 4th quarter Jamaica scored 14 to Australia’s 15 to give the Diamonds the victory by three goals to set up a first ever championship decider against England tomorrow at 11 am tomorrow Jamaica time.
The Sunshine Girls will play for the bronze medal in a return clash with dethroned champions New Zealand tomorrow at 9 am
Meanwhile England booked their place in the final earlier this morning when they upstaged New Zealand 46-40 in their semi-final showdown
It was also a tight encounter………… both teams were locked at 9-9 at the end of the first quarter…….they scored 11 goals each in the second quarter to be locked at 23-23 at half time.
In the third quarter they both scored 12 each before England were able to outscore new Zealand 14-8 in the 4th quarter to come away with the 6 goal victory