• Jamaica almost certain to miss knockout rounds
England’s netballers have made it part of their mantra to have fun at this World Cup. And now they can: their 56-48 defeat of Jamaica, in only the first of this week’s matches, has already all but secured them a semi-final spot. For Jamaica, however, it was the end of a four year dream – their surprise defeat against South Africa on Sunday made this a must-win game, and now, unless an unlikely sequence of results go their way, this will be the first time since 1995 that they have not made it into the knockout rounds.
It was a major blow for a team who came into this tournament ranked third in the world and with strong hopes of their first trophy in 15 attempts. But captain Jhaniele Fowler-Reid took a deep breath and a philosophical stance. “Of course we’re devastated, we’re disappointed because we wanted to go further,” she said. “But what can we do? We’re not going to kill ourselves, to be honest.”
Written by Emma John at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/15/england-jamaica-netball-world-cup-match-report under the title “England close on Netball World Cup semi-final spot with win over Jamaica”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
