England came away with a 90-29 win; Barbados have the Corbin sisters in their side who switched nationalities from England; all games will be live on Sky Sports from July 28 to August 6, with one game per day available on the Sky Sports YouTube channel
Saturday 29 July 2023 07:44, UK
England got their Netball World Cup 2023 campaign up and running with a dominant 90-29 victory over Barbados.
England got off the mark immediately as the centre pass found the always accurate Eleanor Cardwell in a show of intent from the Vitality Roses.
Barbados then fought back through Kadeen Corbin's teamwork with her sister Sasha Corbin, who both switched nationalities from England to Barbados for this World Cup, to bring the game level at 3-3 after five minutes.
However, England then started to pull away as the likes of Helen Housby got motoring, their defensive pressure causing turnovers and giving England a 20-8 lead after the first quarter.
England rang the changes for the second quarter with the likes of Olivia Tchine entering alongside Fran Williams and despite Barbados looking more dangerous, they managed to go in at the half-time break with a 42-18 lead as their slick attack continued.
Chelsea Pitman and Funmi Fadoju were the big names to enter the fray in the third quarter and Fadoju immediately made herself a presence as England increased their lead to 65-22, stunting Barbados' scoring opportunities in the circle.
With head coach Jess Thirlby insisting she was more focused on a consistent performance than the numbers on the scoreboard her side delivered.
Elsewhere, defending champions New Zealand started their hunt for back-to-back World Cup victories with a 76-27 win over Trinidad and Tobago.
Their closest rivals and 2019 runners-up Australia also started with a clinical 86-30 win over Zimbabwe.
England co-captain Layla Guscoth...
"We wanted to show consistency across four quarters.
"We didn't know what Barbados would be like, they have got two of our old team-mates in Sasha and Kadeen (Corbin), so it was a bit of trying to work it out as we went along.
"I think we came good as we got closer to the end."
