New Zealand semi-final awaits Blackpool’s Eleanor Cardwell and her England netball team-mates
England’s netballers reached the Commonwealth Games semi-finals after a winner-takes-all match on Thursday.
A Commonwealth Games netball medal remains a prospect for Eleanor Cardwell and her England team-mates after a dramatic conclusion to the group stages in Glasgow.
Two wins and a defeat from their opening three Group A games left them needing to win the final two matches against Tonga and South Africa to reach the semi-finals.
First up was Wednesday afternoon’s 94-32 win against Tonga at the OVO Hydro, which saw them score 27 goals in the first period alone.
It was Cardwell who dominated the scoring, the Blackpool-born attacker successful with 54 of her 59 attempts at goal.
That win, coupled with defeat for South Africa against Australia, left England facing a winner-takes-all match against the former on Thursday evening.
South Africa started the better, building a 17-11 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
England responded and reduced their deficit to one by the break in trailing 29-28.
They pulled clear in the third to move 43-39 ahead going into the final period, which saw both teams score 15 times as England claimed a 58-54 win.
“I’m so proud of the team,” captain Fran Williams told England Netball.
“I don’t think people really understand the pressure we’ve been under this last week but also longer than that, the last year or two.
“We know the standard of international netball is cut-throat now and if you don’t show up, the other team is going to beat you.
“We’ve faced that over the last couple of years where, if we don’t bring our best, the other team will come out on top.
“I’m just so glad that after a pretty shaky first quarter, we were able to get ourselves back in the game.
“Our focus was 100 per cent on our processes and how we were going to win that game and beat South Africa.
“I feel like we really showed that clinical netball, particularly in that last half, with such a low error rate.
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“We’ve got a semi-final now that we don’t want to just turn up for. We absolutely want to compete in it and get ourselves into that final.”
The semi-finals take place on Saturday, when England meet New Zealand and Australia take on Jamaica.