Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls’ hopes of winning the gold medal at this year’s Netball World Cup were dashed after they were beaten 57-54 by Australia in the semifinals in Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday.

The Jamaicans will now face dethroned champions New Zealand in tomorrow’s bronze medal match.

The first period of the match was very intense as both teams traded basket for basket at both ends of the court, which saw the period ending with scores locked at 14-14.

Captain Jhaniele Fowler, playing in her 100th game for the Sunshine Girls, scored 13 of her team’s 14 goals in the period.

The Jamaicans started the second period a bit shakily and at one point trailed the Australians 25-22 with five minutes remaining in the stanza.

However, they rallied strongly through their vice-captain Shamera Sterling, who made a brilliant defensive stop to prevent the Australians from scoring and in the process helped the Sunshine Girls to rally and tie up the game at 29-29 at half time.

The Sunshine Girls played poorly in the opening minutes of the third quarter as their attacking unit were shut down by the Australian defensive team. In fact, the Jamaicans committed six turnovers compared to the Aussies three and at one point trailed their opponents 31-35.

But like they did in the second stanza, the Sunshine Girls rallied to close the gap to trail the Australians 42-40 at the end of the third period. However, the Sunshine Girls began the final period confidently as they quickly jumped out to a 47-44 lead midway the stanza.

However, a number of crucial mistakes from their centre court led to the Jamaicans demise as the Australians took advantage and pulled away for a comfortable victory in the final two minutes of the game. Overall the Jamaicans committed 13 turnovers in the match compared to their opponents 12.

Fowler top scored the Sunshine Girls with 46 goals from 47 attempts while Shanice Beckford added eight goals from ten tries. Steph Wood led the way for Australians 29 goals from 23 attempts while her teammate Cara Koenen chipped in with 28 goals from 30 tries.