ENGLAND produced one of the great boilovers of the Commonwealth Games with a thrilling last-second 52-51 win over Australia in netball’s pulsating, pressure-packed gold medal match.
Goalshooter Helen Housby hit the winner as time expired to hand England a remarkable victory in their first appearance in a Commonwealth Games decider.
Scores were level with 15 seconds left with England in possession but goal attack Jo Harten missed her shot at the match-winner.
Housby got the rebound but missed her shot at glory..
It look like the netball title was going into extra-time for the third time in Commonwealth Games history.
However, Housby received a penalty and another shot at goal and made no mistake, sending the English team into raptures and the Diamonds into the depths of despair.
England had nothing to lose coming up against the red-hot home nation and they took the fight up to the Aussies in the tradition of Commonwealth Games gold medal matches.
This was another edge-of-the-seat affair with the sides going toe-to-toe for the full 60 minutes and the weight of the world on every shot and every pass.
After Jamaica claimed the bronze medal with a 60-55 win over New Zealand to underline the Silver Ferns’ miserable and medal-less campaign on the Gold Coast, the new world order for netball continued to take shape.
What odds the final three – in order – at the Commonwealth Games being England, Australia and Jamaica?
You could have named your price at the start of the tournament.
It was obvious very early on that was not going to be a cakewalk for the Diamonds.
England looked poised and applied incredible pressure from the first pass and took an early lead before Australia steadied and held a slender 14-13 lead at the first break.
It was 25-all at halftime with the Diamonds guilty of making uncharacteristic error after uncharacteristic error with England refusing to be intimidated by the host nation.
Australia struggled to get quick ball into captain and goalshooter Caitlin Bassett with England defender Geva Mentor making life hell for her Sunshine Coast Lightning teammate.
Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander made wholesale changes at the break with Laura Geitz and April Brandley replaced by Courtney Bruce and Jo Weston in key defensive positions with Caitlin Thwaites and Steph Wood in the attacking circle for Australia.
The capacity crowd at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre ripped into a “You’re the Voice” sing-a-long at halftime but Wood was the rockstar with immediate impact off the bench and shouldered the scoring load, turning a two-goal deficit into a 38-36 lead at three-quarter-time.
The Diamonds got out to a three-goal buffer but a number of turnovers invited the English back into the contest and they took control in the dying minutes.
Harten finished with 34 goals from 39 attempts while Housby added 18 from 21. Bassett led the Diamonds with 22 goals.
