Sunshine Girls skipper targets improved show against T&T
Jamaica’s senior Sunshine Girls Captain Jhaniele Fowler says they will be aiming for a polished performance when they take on Caribbean rivals Trinidad and Tobago in their second quarter-final round match of the Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday.
The match is set to begin 9:00 am Jamaica time.
The Jamaicans, ranked fourth in the world and one of the favourites to win the gold medal, have recorded four-straight victories in the competition.
However, the Connie Francis-coached team is coming off a less than impressive 61-49 victory over Uganda on Monday, in which they committed 28 turnovers and 82 penalties.
The Sunshine Girls are set to face world champions New Zealand in their top-of-the-table clash on Thursday, a match that will determine whether they face number three ranked England or top-rated Australia in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Fowler said they want to be firing on all cylinders before they enter the semi-finals.
“This match is very important for us because we want to make sure that we minimise our penalties and turnovers going forward limited,” she said.
“We are feeling good because we are still very confident, and we will get much better as the matches go by, but we also have to maintain our discipline and focus at all times.
“We also definitely have to be more careful in how we handle things in each game because we want to ensure we stay on top of things in this competition,” Fowler said.
The Trinidadians, who are ranked number 11 in the world, are not expected to pose much of a challenge for the Sunshine Girls.
However, Fowler said they will not be taking their opponents for granted.
“We take no team lightly in this competition because when we go out there, we go out there to play skilful netball and make sure that we are sticking to the task and doing what we have to do best to get the victory. “We did have some lulls against Uganda throughout the match and that is for us as the 12 players to fix that before we get to the New Zealand game and beyond. And going forward we want to ensure that we play beautiful netball,” Fowler stated.