England 58-61 Jamaica: Sunshine Girls win to take three-match series into crucial decider

Jamaica defeated England 61-58 at the Copper Box Arena in London to level the series ahead of Sunday's final match.

The Vitality Roses had secured an impressive win over Jamaica in the first match of the series on Wednesday in Manchester and began Saturday's game with similar confidence.

Composed throughout the first 15 minutes, England were six goals ahead going into the second quarter and eyeing a series win with a game to spare.

• England make winning start to three-match series against Jamaica
• Netball in 2023: Schedule and fixtures for the season ahead
• 'Netball is ever-evolving' - Australia embraces inclusive uniform choices

But that second quarter proved decisive. The intensity and speed in the match built up and the Sunshine Girls continued to rack up points. They outscored England 19 goals to nine in the second quarter to hold a 31-27 lead at half-time.

They extended their control of the match in the third quarter, going 48-41 in front with one quarter remaining.

Sunshine Girls captain Jhaniele Fowler led by example, scoring consistently herself, picking up 56 points in total.

England still fought back, cutting down Jamaica's lead. With three minutes left on the clock, the Vitality Roses were only trailing by two points. But that was as close as they could get. Jamaica closed out the game skilfully, ultimately winning 61-58.

"We had to dig ourselves out of the hole we put ourselves in," Jamaica's player of the match Kadijah Williams told BBC Sport.

"It was a tough loss on [Wednesday] so we had to come back and give our best and our best was good enough tonight."

With the series level 1-1, the overall victor will be decided in the final game on Sunday, also at the Copper Box Arena in London.

This series forms part of the Roses' preparations for July's World Cup in South Africa, which will be live on Sky Sports.

What they said…

Jamaica head coach Connie Francis said: "I'm overwhelmed. I'm so proud of the effort of the Sunshine girls. I thought that they came out with a spirited effort from start to finish. We let ourselves down in points of the game but I thought that the effort behind every ball was there. There was a lot of thought process.

"When they came at us, they're such a good team we expect them to come at us, we expect that. So we did some work preparing ourselves for that."

Despite having players unavailable due to injury she noted: "The team is coping and what I love about the team is that they believe in each other, these girls have been around for a very long time so they support each other.

"It's really a learning experience for our youngsters.

"I thought that the team effort was really, really good."

England head coach, Jess Thirlby said: "We're really disappointed but in a very different way. I think to have found a way to dig deep, having lost that second quarter in the style that we did, when we talk about needing learnings out of January and this series we found out a lot about ourselves both early in the game and at the back end. Some of which is still very, very positive.

"To draw the score back to three on three occasions in that last quarter shows some resilience but it also shows you the work we have left to do. Because spilling the ball with unforced errors off our given possession in those moments is criminal.

"Generally we were better at sticking to what we asked which was to keep them out wide. Their ability to score fast was always going to be there. So we had to be very brave and have courage higher up the court. We demanded that from game one to game two.

"So it was great we dug deep. Our desire to win the series here and now had to be greater than theirs to stay in the series and that's what we asked of ourselves but early on in the game, those moments do cost you.

"But it tells us a lot and it tells the individuals in the collective a lot about where we need to find some more tomorrow."