Hosts and reigning champions Australia bounced back from their shock defeat at the hands of New Zealand with a 51-41 victory over England as the second phase of the Netball World Cup at the Allphones Arena on the Olympic Park in Sydney got underway.
Advertisement
First up, though, is their final pool match, against Wales on Friday.
England beat Wales on Wednesday and knew victory over South Africa would secure their passage to the knock-out stages, with two wins from their three qualification-round games.
New Zealand was forced to introduce their big guns to avoid a monumental upset at the Netball World Cup in Sydney after being pushed by determined Malawi side, but eventually Malawi tasted a first loss 57-49.
They have a motto “pressure is typically a privilege” beginning with the baseball stars to price with the load of suspense regarding a Netball World Cup on own home dust.
The tournament’s surprise packets, the world No. 14 She Cranes, tested their far higher-ranked counterparts for much of the way to a flattering 59-47 scoreline, fighting neck-and-neck and levelling in the third quarter before their intensity faded. They limited their turnovers to 18 and their penalties to 30.
Shooter Malia Paseka earned her fifth cap in tandem with 57-cap veteran goal attack Jodi Brown hit her stride early as the Kiwis rattled up nine unanswered goals before Uganda troubled the scorers.
Netball World Cup’s Kath Tetley said the trophy tour was about community engagement and fan experience.
That Wales against some of the world’s leading nations and Wilcox says her team are enjoying the opportunity to come up against full-time professionals.
New Zealand trio Casey Kopua, Bailey Mes and Kayla Cullen were all spelled, and Tutaia (6/8) only made a last-quarter cameo as part of a relatively untested shooting combination with Malia Paseka (48/54).
“Moving to Australia at the start of 2013, I thought, ‘Well, that’s it, I have to see red now, ‘ as in red Swifts, and that was exciting, but it is very good to be back in black”, she said.
Advertisement
“For them to be so composed was fantastic, but I think we’ll probably go up and down but we’ll go up again and we’ll be ready for the grunty bit at the end of the week”.
