After two consecutive victories at the Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls will face their stiffest test today when they take on host South Africa in a top-of-the-table clash in Pool C.

Match time is 11:00 am Jamaica time.

The Sunshine Girls, who have been in immaculate form in the competition, thrashed Wales 75-40 in their last game on Saturday. They also outclassed minnows Sri Lanka 105-25 in their opening game of the tournament on Friday.

Both Jamaica and South Africa are tied on four points each heading into today’s encounter, and a win for either team will see them topping the pool. However, when both teams last met at the NWC in 2019 in Liverpool, England, South Africa defeated the Jamaicans 55-52 in the group stages of the competition.

Shawn Murdock, assistant coach of the Sunshine Girls, said the South Africans are a very good side, but he is confident that they will come out on top today.

“This is an absolutely good test for us because they are ranked just below us on the world ranking table and there is no surety as to who will win, but we are going there to win,” said Murdock.

“They will have home crowd support and so it is crucial for us to get in front of them early just to ensure that we keep the crowd silent throughout the match,” he said.

Murdock pointed out that while they are happy for the two victories in the competition so far, there are some areas of concern they will be looking to improve on against the South Africans today.

“We are looking forward to this game against South Africa because we got a good run against a very good Wales as they were a much better team compared to the Sri Lankan team, and so we are just looking to continue our winning ways on Sunday,” Murdock said.

“We have registered two-straight victories and we are happy for those wins, but they exposed some areas that we really need to tighten up on, especially the penalty counts, yesterday [Friday] it was more than we wanted it to be and today [Saturday] it was even higher, and so we need to get it right in this department against South Africa,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Connie Francis-coached Sunshine Girls dominated Saturday’s match against Wales as they led 23-11 at the end of the first quarter and 44-23 at half-time. The Jamaicans outscored their opponents 14-6 in the third stanza to extend their lead to 58-29 at the end of the quarter.

The Jamaicans, who are ranked fourth in the world, outclassed the ninth-ranked Wales team in the fourth period as they dominated their opponents in all areas of the court. In fact, the Jamaicans outscored their opponents 27-11 in the final quarter to record a comfortable win.

Captain Jhaniele Fowler, who played in the final two quarters of the match, led the way for the Sunshine Girls with 39 goals from 41 attempts.

She received solid support from Romelda Aiken, who shot 19 goals from 22 attempts; Rebekah Robinson, 12 goals from 14 attempts; and Shanice Beckford, five goals from six tries.