Sunshine Girls coach Sasher-Gaye Henry.
Marlon Reid
Sunshine Girls coach and former player Sasher-Gaye Henry says her team is looking forward to the challenge of taking on England in their upcoming four-match Test series.
Henry’s Sunshine Girls will be looking to rebound from a 1-2 series defeat at the hands of their opponents when they last squared off in England last January.
“It’s a big one for us and we’re looking forward to the ranking,” Henry told Sportsmax.tv last week.
We always want to beat England and they always want to beat us so we embrace this type of competition and look forward to it,” Henry added.
Both teams are currently separated in the Netball World Rankings by just two points. England are ranked number two in the world with 189 rating points while Jamaica are fourth with 187.
Henry, who won 75 caps for the Sunshine Girls between 1996 and 2015, was also asked about her best memories as a player against England.
Rather than giving just one memory, Henry noted how excited she was whenever she got to test her skills against the rivals.
“As a player, it was always about wanting to win, especially when it comes to playing England,” she said.
“We’re big rivals and it was always a competition between coming third and fourth so we were always in high spirits when we were playing England and the cycle continues,” Henry added.
Jamaica will first travel to England to take on the Vitality Roses on November 16 and 17 at the AO Arena in Manchester before hosting the Roses at the National Indoor Sports Centre on November 25 and 26.
Henry is pleased with her team’s preparation for the series thus far.
“I think the preparation has gone fairly well. One of our main focuses was on our fitness, mental preparation and tactical plays. What we’re looking is to see hos well the girls will put all of those into play and be ready for the competition,” she said.
Bradley Jacks is a budding journalist and an avid sports fan. His love of research and sports has led him to SportsMax.tv, a place where those passions work hand in hand to allow him to produce content.
Mulder and Muthusamy partnership puts South Africa on the brink
South Africa are on the brink of sealing a series sweep after another dominant display on the second day of their second Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram.
Wiaan Mulder became the third maiden centurion for the Proteas in the Test, with the tourists declaring on 575-6 before ripping through Bangladesh's top order to leave them 38-4 at stumps.
De Zorzi, the hero on day one, started at the crease with David Bedingham, and the pair continued to hammer home their advantage, adding significant runs to their overnight totals.
Taijul Islam, on his way to a five-wicket haul, eventually got the wickets of Bedingham (59) and De Zorzi (177), only for Mulder and Senuran Muthusamy to take control.
The duo put on an unbeaten partnership of 152 runs, after which South Africa declared their innings, with Mulder and Muthusamy ending on 105 and 68 respectively.
Bangladesh then made a poor start to their chase, losing Shadman Islam for a duck in the first over, with Zakir Hasan (two), Mahmudul Hasan Joy (10) and Hasan Mahmud (three) falling shortly after.
Mominul Haque (six) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (four) are the men tasked with starting Bangladesh's revival when play resumes on Thursday.
Data Debrief: The Three Musketeers
Bangladesh last lost five matches in a row at home from October 2011 to November 2012, but look in serious danger of equalling that run after a rampant South Africa display.
And while the first day belonged to De Zorzi and Stubbs, the second day was all about Mulder's century and his partnership with Muthusamy.
The pair added 152 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket, breaking South Africa's record for this wicket against Bangladesh from the previous Test in Dhaka, where Mulder and Kyle Verreynne had added 119.
Mulder also became the third batter to score his maiden Test century in Chattogram, after De Zorzi and Stubbs. Only once before have three batters scored their maiden Test tons in the same innings - Gerry Gomez, Robert Christiani and Clyde Walcott for West Indies against India in Delhi in 1948.
Bethell replaces Smith for England Test tour of New Zealand
England have named Warwickshire all-rounder Jacob Bethell in their squad for the three-Test tour of New Zealand.
Bethell, who made his T20 and ODI debuts against Australia last month, replaces Jamie Smith who misses out due to paternity leave.
However, the 21-year-old has played just 20 County Championship games in his career, and has yet to make a first-class century.
He averaged 25.44 across those matches, with his highest total of 93 coming against Nottinghamshire early in the 2024 season.
Bethell made some impressive middle-order cameos with the bat against Australia in September, and also starred for the Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred.
Bethell also bowls left arm-spin - he struck four times across the five ODIs versus Australia - and will support the frontline trio of Shoaib Bashir, Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed.
His inclusion is the only change to the squad that suffered a 2-1 series defeat in Pakistan, with Jordan Cox poised for his Test bow as he deputises behind the stumps for Smith.
Vice-captain Ollie Pope keeps his place in the squad despite a difficult tour of Pakistan in which he averaged just 11, with a highest score of 29, across the three Tests.
The first Test in Christchurch begins on 27 November with matches in Wellington and Hamilton to follow in December.
England squad for Test series against New Zealand: Ben Stokes (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Bryson Carse, Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.
Evenly matched: A look back at the last decade of the rivalry between Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls and England’s Vitality Roses
The intense rivalry between Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls and England’s Vitality Roses will see its next chapter when the teams meet in a crucial four-match Test series in November.
The Roses and the Sunshine Girls are currently second and fourth with 189 and 187 rating points, respectively, in the Netball World Rankings based on matches up to October 6.
Sandwiched between the two is New Zealand with 188 points while Australia have a comfortable lead atop the rankings with 209 rating points.
The series will see the Jamaicans travelling to England for matches on November 16 and 17 at the AO Arena in Manchester before hosting the Roses at the National Indoor Sports Centre on November 25 and 26.
As has been previously stated, this rivalry has been one of the most competitive in global netball and, to give some context, here are the results from various series and matchups between the two over the last 10 years.
The teams met on five occasions in total in 2015. They met in a three-match Test series in January in Jamaica which the hosts won 2-1 before meeting twice at the Netball World Cup in Australia in August.
Drawn together in the Group Stage, England defeated the Sunshine Girls 54-50 in the preliminaries before producing a dominant display in the bronze-medal game, winning 66-44.
A year later, the teams met again in a three-match Test series, this time in England with the Jamaicans once again coming out 2-1 winners.
Current Sunshine Girls captain and best goal shooter in the world at the moment, Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard, kept it simple when recalling her favourite memory facing the Roses throughout her illustrious career.
“My best memory playing against England throughout my career has to definitely be any time we’ve beaten them,” she told Sportsmax.tv at a Sunshine Girls training session at the National Indoor Sports Centre last Friday.
“I take great joy in going up against them, especially beating them on their home turf,” she added.
A major tournament was once again the setting for the pair’s next meeting, this time at the 2017 Fast5 Netball World Series in Australia.
Jamaica defeated England 47-38 in the round robin stage but it was England who had the last laugh, defeating the Sunshine Girls 34-29 when it mattered most to win the title for the first time.
The teams next locked horns in the last four at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
England entered that game in red hot form, dominating everyone in the preliminary round on their way to a 5-0 record while Jamaica’s only loss up to that point in their five preliminary round games was to Australia.
The teams fought to the death in the semi-final with England eventually coming out victorious 56-55 before winning another nail-biter, 52-51 over Australia, to win gold.
Jamaica took bronze with a 60-55 win over New Zealand.
Current Sunshine Girl and global netball star, Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, described that semi-final as a bittersweet moment when asked about her most vivid memories of facing the Roses in her career.
“I would say it’s a bad and a good memory because at least we were able to challenge England to that extent,” she told Sportsmax.tv.
A few months later that same year, the Girls got their revenge with a 3-0 Test series whitewash over their counterparts at home. The 2023 Suncorp Super Netball player of the year described this series as the best moment of her national team career, so far.
Moving on to the 2019 Netball World Cup which was hosted by England where the rivalry renewed in the preliminary round.
The hosts came out winners 56-48 and went on to claim bronze while Jamaica failed to advance to the semi-finals, finishing fifth.
Jamaica came out on top over the Roses at the 2020 Netball Nations Cup in England. They met in the third round with the Sunshine Girls coming out 70-66 winners before eventually losing the final 56-67 to New Zealand.
2021 saw England’s Roses secure their first Test series win over the Sunshine Girls since 2013 with a 2-1 win in Nottingham.
The two sides last met in January 2023 in a three-match test series played in Manchester and London which saw the Vitality Roses defeat Jamaica 73-52 in the first match, take a narrow 58-61 loss in the second match, and claim the series with a 63-59 win in the third and final test.
Amazingly, the two sides didn’t meet at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham or last summer’s Netball World Cup in South Africa.
The Sunshine Girls took silver in Birmingham while the Roses finished fourth. The World Cup saw England take home a historic silver medal while Jamaica took bronze.
It remains to be seen who will come out on top in the latest edition of this rivalry but one thing’s for sure, it will be exciting.
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