Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls made it four straight victories at the Netball World Cup, beating Uganda 61-49 in their opening match in the quarterfinal round of the competition in Cape Town, South Africa on Monday.

The Jamaicans, who are one of the favourites for the gold medal, jumped to a 15-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. They then increased their advantage to 38-21 at the half time.

Captain and goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler had an excellent first half for the Sunshine Girls with a perfect 28 goals from 28 attempts.

She was well supported by goal attack Shanice Beckford, who netted a perfect 10 goals from 10 tries.

However, Jamaica’s head coach Connie Francis made four changes to the team at the start of the third period, replacing Fowler with Romelda Aiken-George, and Beckford with Rebekah Robinson in the attack.

Vice-captain Shamera Sterling was replaced by Kadie-Ann Dehaney at goalkeeper and Nicole Rochester-Dixon took the place of Adean Thomas at centre.

The moves proved very costly for the Jamaicans as they were outscored 16-11 by the Ugandans, but they still managed to hang onto a 49-37 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Aiken-George ended the match with a perfect 15 goals from 15 attempts as both teams scored 12 goals apiece in the fourth stanza, with the Sunshine Girls coming away with the victory.

Robinson contributed eight goals from nine tries for the Jamaicans. Mary Cholhok top scored for the Ugandans with 28 goals from 33 attempts.