Sunshine Girls prepare for NZ battle

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Delhi, India:

Jamaica's Sunshine Girls warmed up for their all-important semi-final date with New Zealand, registering a comprehensive 100-27 demolition of host nation India, in netball action at the Thyagaraj Sport Complex yesterday, in their final preliminary round game at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The Jamaicans, powered by ace goal-shooter Romelda Aiken (40 points from 42 attempts) and Jhaniele Fowler (38 from 41), pummelled the locals from start to finish.

They will now turn their attention to tomorrow's clash against the world number two-ranked Silver Ferns.

A Jamaica win in that game will guarantee at least a silver medal for the Connie Francis-coached Sunshine Girls, while defeat will result in a third place play-off against either Australia or England, who will meet in the next semi-final.

Annette Daley, assistant coach of the Jamaican team, knows that the New Zealanders will provide a much sterner test than their Indian hosts, but believes victory will be in sight if her team is able to stick to two basic principles.

Work as a team

"It's simple really," said Daley after the India game. "Once we are attacking, we need to do so as a team, everyone must be available for a pass and once we are defending we should do so as a team.

"If we are able to do this consistently against New Zealand then we will have a great chance of winning that game. The girls are very confident in themselves, they know they can compete with the very best, even if it's going to be a very difficult game," Daley continued.

Vice-captain Nadine Bryan is a key architect from centre court and will have to be at her very best if Jamaica is to come away with a positive result from their upcoming engagement.

Bryan, who has been steady all tournament, reports that the girls are all excited about the clash and is looking to step up her personal performance as the all-important round begins.

"The mood is great among the girls and we are all confidently awaiting New Zealand," said Bryan. "Everybody expects New Zealand to win, but it's up to us to go out on the court and prove ourselves.

"Personally, I'm happy with my performance so far. It's been good but I can get better, there are some things that I'm going to have to work on for the upcoming matches and that will be the focus leading into the next match," Bryan noted.

The Jamaicans have been very strong in the offensive third, like the New Zealanders, averaging in the region of 90 per cent in terms of their shooting rate. Only the number one-ranked Australians are better with a 95 per cent average.

Daley believes their accuracy is a good sign and also commended the girls for their performance against India, highlighting that the game was used as a test run and an opportunity to try different things ahead of the New Zealand game.

Game plan

"We had asked them to stick to a particular game plan and I would say that 95 per cent of the time they stuck to it. We are happy that after making certain assessments and asking them to stick to certain things, they were able to go out there and execute those objectives and make the adjustments," Daley shared.

Among the things that the Jamaicans will be looking to change against the Ferns, is their tendency to go for long passes, considering the New Zealanders' knack for interceptions.

"New Zealand's defenders play off the body more than Australia, therefore, they force more interceptions. If they played or marked closer then it would be difficult for them to intercept passes so that was definitely one of the things that we were looking at," informed Daley.

"During the India game there were many opportunities for long passes, but the girls stuck to the game plan and played the game we wanted them to play; this is a good sign."

However, turnovers continue to affect the team; the Jamaicans gave the ball away an astonishing 23 times against the Indian minnows, something they might have been severely punished for if they were playing against better opponents.

Daley says the coaching staff has been asking for more movement off the ball and highlighted a lack in this area as the main reason behind the high turnover rate.

"We are not getting continuous motion, not enough movement off the ball and what you find is that the person with the ball has limited options to pass. We have looked at that and are working hard to get them to correct it," said Daley.