Netballers eye sweep of England
Jamaica has long been known as a perfect tourist destination where visitors receive warm and friendly treatment from the locals.
Try telling that to the England Roses who have received none of that kind of treatment from their opponents since arriving on the island for their three-Test netball series.
England have been soundly beaten in the first two Tests, and must now try to save face today in the final game at National Indoor Sports Arena.
The visitors can expect no favours, thefore, as Jamaica’s much-loved netballers will aim to make, it three-straight wins their people celebrate National Heroes’ Day.
After an impressive win on Thursday, Jamaica would have braced for a backlash from the Commonwealth Games champions on Saturday and found themselves playing catch up for the first part of the first quarter of game two.
Slowly but surely Jamaica took control of the game to lead 15-11 at the end of the first quarter, and outscored their opponents by six goals in the second quarter to build up a 10-goal (29-19) lead at half-time.
Unlike game one when Jhaniel Fowler started the second half on the bench, the top shooter remained in the game and helped to keep the visitors at arm’s length in the third quarter before blowing their opponents away in the final quarter.
The 19-goal margin of victory is probably more than coach Marvette Anderson could have imagined before the start of the game, but with the series won the aim now is to finish the series strong.
“I think the ladies did exceptionally well defensively…what you saw on the court are things that we have been working on for the last couple of months and I am happy to see that we were able to execute that tonight,” Anderson said after seeing her girls wrap up the series.
She also promised that there would be no let-up during the game tonight.
“We are coming for that victory. I know England are still not gonna give up — they are two nil down — but I am sure that they will play with some pride so I know that the game will be just as intense,” Anderson indicated.
Clearly the emphasis has been on defensive intensity and that is where it will remain, even tonight.
“We will continue to work on our defence, our discipline, our decision-making. We will be ready defensively; I have no doubt about that the team is gonna stand up. We have persons that are coming in that are ready to play.”
Kadeen Corbin led the way for England again with 24/31 and will be looking to be near-perfect in the shooting circle tonight.
Her teammate Jade Clarke had promised that they will do everything possible to prevent being swept by the Jamaicans.
“We will do everything we can. We will look at the video, and we will go to the training courts and do everything possible to turn that around. England are a really good team at bouncing back. We have lost before, we have failed before, and we have come out on top — so we are going to be really fighting and we will be looking forward to the next game.”
There were no excuses coming from Clarke, who said they think they have the players to get the job done.
“We brought a team that is capable of winning. We believe in ourselves, we believe in our youngsters. I think our best performer is our youngest player, the goalkeeper at the back, Razia (Quashie). So we have a lot of faith that this team that we have brought can do the job.”
She also promised that England will be giving it their all in this, the last game of the LASCO Sunshine Test series.
“They are a world-class team but we are up for the challenge,” Clarke promised.
The match will begin at 6:30 pm.