Sunshine Girls Head Coach Connie Francis is considering making changes to the team’s mid-court ahead of the second Test between Jamaica and England on December 4.

 This as she believes turnovers, especially those in mid-court was among the key factors contributing to why Jamaica lost 45-55 to England’s Roses on Sunday after having held a lead over the home team for the first half of their contest at the Copper Box Arena in London.

Jamaica led 27-25 at half-time but was outscored 16-9 and 14-10, in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, as England surged to a commanding victory.

Speaking with Sportsmax.TV after the team arrived in Nottingham on Monday, Francis also said the Sunshine Girls lacked match fitness and as a result, were not at their best in the second half. She also takes some of the blame for not adjusting to a few tactical changes England made during the game.

Notwithstanding those issues, Francis believes England are in a much better place than her team at this juncture.

“England right now is a better-conditioned team than us. They are an in-form team coming off a successful tour in New Zealand and they have a really good squad. Nevertheless, we took a really good squad but we have some players in our group that have not been playing netball for 18 months,” she said.

“So, for one, I don’t think we have reached our fitness goals as yet and, two, we lost our focus because we should have gone out there and capitalized in that third quarter.”

That said, Francis revealed that they are going back to the proverbial drawing board as they begin preparing to correct the errors made in the opening match of the three-Test series.

“We are in Nottingham now and we are going to a training session. Tomorrow we have another training session, we have a video session, so we have some days to also try some new persons in that mid-court area because at times I think out mid-court is a little too stagnant,” Francis said.

“Trying to get some players who have been there done that to add to that rotation and that didn’t help so it’s about moving out some other players from their comfort zone into that mid-court to see if we can get some more height and strength in because I think that having 27 turnovers wasn’t good enough and most of them were in that mid-court.

“If we had fixed some of those passes, some of those through-court plays, those feeds into our shooters then it was possible (the result) would have gone the other way around.”

Where Francis blames herself is that she didn’t react adequately to personnel changes England made in goal attack and goalkeeper positions, which made a significant difference.

“I think that possibly I could have done something a little different because when I looked at the tape I see where they had made a tactical change and I tried to fix it but it just didn’t happen,” she said.

“I thought that our defending team stood up extremely well for the most part but when England made those crucial changes and instruction was given, we didn’t rise to the instruction. So we are going back to the drawing board looking at where we have gone wrong and try to fix it.”

Considering the circumstances, Francis said she was proud of her team’s performance on Sunday.

“I am really proud of the girls and their effort,” she said. “They tried to stay with England for the most part but the continuous unforced errors, we just had to pay for them.”

Games two and three are to be played on December 4 and 5 at the Motor Point Arena.

Sri Lanka reached 113-1 at the end of a rain-shortened opening day of the second Test against the West Indies at Galle on Monday.

Odean Smith’s 11-ball 32 proved instrumental to the Deccan Gladiators’ 19-run victory over Northern Warriors in the Abu Dhabi T10 League on Sunday.

England’s Roses took a 1-0 lead in their three-Test series against Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls after they rallied to win 55-45 before a packed Copper Box Arena in London on Sunday.

Jamaica started well, outscoring their opponents 11-10 and 26-25 at the end of the first quarter and half-time, respectively. Jamaica’s lead was largely down to outstanding performances from Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Shamera Sterling, who caused England’s shooters significant challenges in the first half.

England’s defensive players turned the tables against Jamaica after the interval Eboni Usoro-Brown kept Jhaniele Fowler quiet and forced multiple changes in Jamaica's attack-end as the home side took control of the game to outscore Jamaica 16-9 in the third quarter and 14-10 in the fourth to pull off a commanding victory.

Fowler scored 40 of 41 attempts for the Sunshine Girls, who also got five goals from Shanice Beckford.

Jo Harten scored 30 of 39 and Eleanor Cardwell 20 of 22 for the Roses.

England had lost four of their last five games against Jamaica.

The second and third Tests will be played on December 4 and 5 at the Motor Point Arena

Chris Gayle followed up his unbeaten 52 for Team Abu Dhabi late last week with a 16-ball 30 as Team Abu Dhabi scored a seven-wicket victory over bottom-placed Chennai Braves in the Abu Dhabi T10 league on Sunday.

Five student-athletes on Friday received cheques ranging from J$50,000 to J$60,000 under Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s Pocket Rocket Foundation scholarship programme that rewards beneficiaries based on outstanding academic performance whilst competing and representing their respective schools in any sporting discipline.

Chris Gayle smashed 52 runs from just 23 balls but Team Abu Dhabi lost by 10 runs to Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10 league on Friday.

Northern Warriors crashed to yet another defeat in the Abu Dhabi T10 on Thursday, losing by eight wickets to Dwayne Bravo’s Delhi Bulls by eight wickets with a ball to spare, despite a blistering half-century from their captain, Rovman Powell.

Cricket West Indies is hoping to give Chris Gayle a proper send-off at Sabina Park when it hosts Ireland for a white-ball series in January next year.

Sri Lanka completed a comprehensive 187-run victory over the West Indies at Galle on Thursday despite defiant half-centuries from Nkrumah Bonner and Joshua da Silva.

The West Indies will be praying for a lot more rain come Thursday as they stare defeat squarely in the face after slumping to 52-6 in their second innings still needing 296 runs for what would be an improbable, if not impossible victory.

After rain delayed the start of the fourth day of the Test, the West Indies resuming from their overnight score of 224-9, were eventually bowled out for 230 when Praveen Jayawickrama trapped Shannon Gabriel lbw for 2 leaving Joshua Da Silva not out on 15.

Jayawickrama finished with figures of 4-40 from 19.5 overs to be the best of Sri Lanka’s bowlers.

Leading by 156 on first innings, Sri Lanka led by Captain Dimuth Karunaratne’s 83 and Angelo Matthews unbeaten 69, raced to 191-4 in 40.5 overs, setting West Indies a target of 348.

The pair put on 123 for the third-wicket that effectively batted the West Indies out of the match.

Rahkeem Cornwall took 2-60 while Jomel Warrican finished with 2-42.

Batting a second time the West Indies batsmen were bamboozled by the Sri Lankan spinners crumbling to 18-5 by midway the 12^th over.

Ramesh Mendis did most of the damage taking 4-17. He was supported by Lasith Embuldeniya, who took 2-18.

They did meet some late resistance, though, as Da Silva and Nkrumah Bonner, the only batsmen to reach double figures, have so far but on 38 for the seventh wicket. The former is not out in 15 while Bonner is on 18. They will be hoping to bat throughout Thursday’s final day with hopeful eyes on the clouds above.

A quick-fire half-century from Rovman Powell was not enough to prevent Northern Warriors from being defeated by the Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10 on Monday.

Batting first, the 2018 champions made 126-4 from their 10 overs spurred by Powell’s 63 from 27 balls. The Jamaican all-allrounder smashed four fours and six sixes that propelled Warriors from 42-3 at the end of four overs.

Powell and Samit Patel added 80 in the last six overs before he got out off the penultimate ball of the innings. Patel remained unbeaten on 21 from 13 balls.

Needing 125 for victory, the Tigers scored 10 runs from the opening over but then lost Andre Fletcher for one at the start of the second over.

Willy Jacks replaced Fletcher and set about the bowling. He and Hazratullah Zazai added 23 for the second wicket before the latter was dismissed for 17.

However, before Jacks got going, he was losing wickets at the other end as Faf du Plessis (1), Karim Janar (16) and Johnson Charles (1) all went cheaply to see the Tigers slip to 58-5.

With 23 balls left Tigers needed 67 for victory and Jacks and Benny Howell delivered. Jacks hit eight fours and three sixes while Howell smashed four fours and a six in the 11 balls he faced to power their team to victory with five balls to spare.

Samit Patel gave up 19 runs in seven balls to finish with 1-19 while Rayad Emrit took 1-31 from his two overs. Chris Jordan was the most expensive of the bowlers, his one over going for 21 runs.

West Indies were in a world of trouble at the end of day two of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle on Monday. Chasing a target of 386, the West Indies slumped to 113-6 at stumps still 273 runs behind on a day that promised much but instead descended into disaster.

When City Commissioner Alexandra Davis received a request for the city to host an auction and fundraiser for Jamaican Olympian Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in October, she jumped at the opportunity.

An unbeaten century by Dimuth Karunaratne and half-centuries from Pathum Nissanka and Dhananjaya de Silva put Sri Lanka in a position of strength at 267-3 at stumps of the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies in Galle on Sunday.