New Zealand, Australia and Jamaica continue winning streak at Netball World Cup

In the early matches of the morning session of the Netball World Cup in Cape Town, New Zealand registered their second win of the tournament with a narrow 54-44 win over Uganda while Fiji prevailed 52-48 over Zimbabwe. 

During the second matches of the session, the Australian Diamonds continued their good form with a 85-38 win over Tonga while Jamaica also made it two out of two with a comprehensive 75-40 win over Wales. 

Jamaica will take on South Africa on Sunday and captain Jhaniele Fowler said they are looking forward to the match. 

“Going up against South Africa on Sunday we know that they will be coming hard on us but we just have to stay our ground and make sure that we stick to the game plan. 

“The strength of our team is that everyone goes on to court to do their job and I am very pleased about that,” she said after their win over Wales. 

New Zealand captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio said they are enjoying their time in the country after they were made to work hard to beat a stubborn Uganda. 

“We are obviously enjoying our time here in South Africa. We had a tour here in January and it was important to know where we are staying and everything so that we can be a little bit more familiar when we come back. 

“So, that’s definitely going well and we are appreciating the culture and enjoying everything that is coming with the tournament. The African teams have been really proud having a World Cup at home. 

“I have never been able to experience that. You can only imagine how proud they are to play on home soil and we have a big appreciation for it being here and they have represented themselves very well.” 

The highlight of the afternoon session is the match between South Africa and minnows Sri Lanka with the Proteas being overwhelming favourites to also make it two out of two. 

The Netball Proteas opened their tournament with a good 61-50 win over Wales and Sri Lanka were given a rude awakening by Jamaica who thumped them 105-25 on Friday. 

Other matches taking place on Saturday evening see England take on Malawi while Trinidad & Tobago will be up against Singapore. 

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