Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls drew first blood with a 55-47 win over South Africa in the first of the three-Test Margaret Beckford Netball series at the National Sports Indoor Centre on Saturday night.

Jamaica was led by outstanding shooting from player of the match Shimona Jok (nee Nelson), who survived a physical battle to score 38 goals from 39 attempts.

Jok was ably supported by Shanice Beckford with 11 goals from 12 attempts and substitutes Rhea Dixon and Simone Gordon, who had three goals each from four attempts.

Goal shooter Rolene Streutker netted 17 from 18 attempts, Elemere Van Der Berg netted 18 from 20 attempts and Kamogelo Maseko scored eight goals for South Africa.

It was a well-deserved victory for the Sunshine Girls as they started slowly, but once they got going, the result was never in doubt.

South Africa gave the world vuvuzelas but they were completely drowned by it as the Jamaicans turned up the decibel levels inside the arena.

Behind the vociferous crowd, Jamaica took charge after the first quarter ended 12-12 and never looked back, opening their biggest lead, 21-18, with six minutes left in the second quarter.

They led 29-23 at the break at half-time, punctuated by a lively performance by Vanessa Bling.

The third quarter started with Jamaica bringing in the British-born players Rhea Dixon and Brie Grierson for goal attack Shanice Beckford and wing attack Khadijah Williams and the momentum increased.

Jamaica increased the lead to 10 goals at 39-29 with five minutes left in the third quarter. But South Africa responded by reducing the deficit to seven, trailing 35-42 at the end of the third quarter.

But any idea the Proteas had of a comeback victory was quickly put to rest at the start of the fourth quarter as the Sunshine Girls raced to a 12-point advantage and ran out easy winner in the end.

The series continues on Wednesday and concludes on Saturday.