Jamaica confirmed their spot in the Semi-finals of the Netball World Cup after another impressive performance to beat Caribbean rivals, Trinidad and Tobago 89-26 in their second Pool G game in Cape Town, South Africa yesterday.
Romelda Aiken-George led the way with 37 goals from 42 attempts, getting support from Shanice Beckford, who chipped in with 20 goals from 24 attempts early on.
Captain, Jhaniele Fowler, who was only introduced for the third quarter of the match, added 17 goals from 19 attempts, while Rebekah Robinson had 15 goals from 17 attempts in the win.
Afeisha Noel expectedly led Trinidad and Tobago with 20 goals from 22 attempts.
After celebrating Jamaica’s historic feat of progressing to the knockout stages of the FIFA Women’s World Cup at the expense of Brazil in Australia, Jamaica entered their contest brimming with confidence and that was on display from the opening whistle.
With another strong start, both in attack and defence, the number four-ranked Jamaica, forced a number of early turnovers and at one point, opened an 8-1 lead in the early exchanges.
Their fast and fluent transitions, coupled with that defensive pressure proved too much for the number 11-ranked, Trinidad and Tobago, who struggled to maintain composure, resulting in Jamaica taking a 20-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was more of the same, as Trinidad and Tobago again struggled for rhythm. In fact, so high was the Jamaican tempo and flair that they scored 12 unanswered goals with Trinidad and Tobago only scoring one, in the first 10 minutes of the quarter.
They eventually found three more late on, but by then Jamaica had raced to a 34-point gap, to enter the half-time break 44-10 in the lead.
Fowler entered the contest at the start of the third quarter and kept the scoring momentum going, so even though Trinidad and Tobago enjoyed their best scoring period with nine goals at that point, they found themselves 69-19 down and with too much to do heading into the final quarter.
Jamaica, who last won one of their three bronze medals at the tournament in 2007, are aiming to not only break that drought, but to do so by winning the coveted gold medal and, by all indications, they are on course to do so.
