Netball World Cup 2015 : Australian Diamonds retain the Cup after a thriller

By Hishan Welmilla in Sydney, Australia

The defending champions Australian Diamonds retained the netball World Cup when they beat New Zealand Silver Ferns rivals in the finals by 58 goals to 55 in front of a capacity crowd at the Allphones arena in Sydney, Australia yesterday.

This is the 11th world cup title for the Diamonds and the Silver Ferns missed the opportunity of grabbing it for the fifth time.

The Silver Ferns downed Australia 52-47 in the Preliminary Rounds of the tournament but they faced a different Australian side in the finals

The Diamonds took the first quarter by 16 goals to 7 hoped with a hope of dominating the opponent with the lessons they learn from the preliminary round lost.

But the Silver Ferns had other ideas and they came back strongly to take the second and third quarters (15-14, 15-13) leaving the home team supporters to have their nails closer to the mouths at the Allophones arena even though Australians were leading 43-37 goals.

The battle went to the wire in the final and decisive quarter with both teams struggling to have a clear lead against the opponent with both goal shooters finding the net frequently But the super power of Australia had a narrow three goals lead at the long whistle to retain the netball World Cup as final score read as 58-55.

Australia’s goal shooter Caitlin Bassett played brilliantly by netting 48 goals out of 51 opportunities while Goal Attack Natalie Medhurst found the net 10 times out of 13.

Goal attack Maria Tutaia scored 38 goals for New Zealand and it is unfortunate she missed 15 scoring opportunities. Goal shooter Bailey Mes scored 17 goals while missing five chances. Those missed opportunities clearly affected the final outcome of the match.

Australia was able to overcome a spirited Jamaica 67-56 in a close battle. The Silver Ferns were able to book their place in the final after downing England 50-39 in the first Semi Final.

England finishes third

It was a tense battle for the third place. The Sunshine Girls Jamaica gave an uphill task for the English Roses right from the beginning. Sunshine Girls won the first quarter 16-11 goals.

Roses bounced back in the second quarter regaining their usual game style and won it by 17 goals to 7. They continued the attacking style and took the third quarter 17-10 goals. Jamaican’s resistance was not enough even in the final quarter and they had to be satisfied with the 4th place as England walk away with the third position in the Netball world Cup 2015. The English Roses made it easily with 66-44 goals.

Sri Lanka finishes last

Sri Lanka ended their worst Netball World Cup ever by placing last at the 2105 Netball World Cup Netball, losing to their Asian counterparts for the second time in the tournament by 59 goals to 32,

It was far behind the result of the last match of the both teams when Singapore trounced Sri Lanka 56-43 in the preliminary round. Singapore was able to score three more goals than the previous outing but Lankans increased the lost goal margin to 24 to the 19 recorded previously.

Sri Lankans had the last opportunity to pull their first victory at the Netball World Cup when they met Singapore again in the 15th-6th placing match and also get a sweet revenge of their two defeats – one in the World Cup and the other in the Asian netball championship.

It was obvious that Sri Lankans did not do the homework to study Singapore. They should have made plans to overcome the resistance of the opponents by going through the mistakes they made in the previous match.

They lost first three quarters (16-8, 20-4, and 13-9) and Singaporeans did not allow to Sri Lankans to cut loose.

The last quarter gave some solace to the Sri Lankan spectators as Sri Lanka clinched the win by just one goal margin (11-10). But it was too late for the Sri Lankan lasses and the long whistle went off signaling their fate and they had to pack the bags and come home empty-handed.

Placing matches

Trinidad & Tobago stormed to finish 9th beating Samoa 64 goals to 51 in a tense battle. Samoa had to be satisfied with the 10th place in this year’s World Cup

The Fiji Pearls have secured the 11th position in the 2015 Netball World Cup, 51-41, against the Scotland Thistles who finished 12th.

Barbados recorded a hard-fought victory over Zambia to win 53-38 on the final day of competition. Despite suffering a number of injuries throughout the game, the Bajan Gems held on to win and finish the event in 13th place and dropped the opponents to 14th place.