Australia have recovered from another slow start to deliver a second convincing win at the netball World Cup with a 85-38 thumping of Tonga in Cape Town.
Moving the ball quickly and accurately, the Diamonds dominated after taking more than three minutes to get their first lead. Cbn Tools
Australia had just a two-goal advantage at quarter time but outscored world No 7 Tonga 70-25 over the remainder of the game.
The Diamonds shooters nailed 91% of their attempts, making their first 31 shots.
Sophie Garbin (42/45) was strong after coming on for the second half, with starter Cara Koenen (29/30) another reliable target.
Australia also clamped down defensively with their pressure forcing 36 turnovers, notching 25 gains and 11 intercepts.
Tonga scored the first goal but seven straight scores gave the Diamonds a 10-3 lead.
The spirited Tongans trailed Australia 15-13 at the first break, with the Diamonds again out of the blocks slowly after trailing Zimbabwe early on Friday.
“Its something we’ve spoken about for a long time, even in all our buildups to be here, it’s our starts that we want to address,” Diamonds captain and centre Liz Watson told Fox Sports.
“We need to come out there with that strong start, lots of teams come out really firing when they play us at the start, so it’s being able to absorb that and being able to play our game.
“We spoke about it last night after yesterday’s game so disappointed we couldn’t get that, but I knew that once we kept grinding and building the result would come.”
The Diamonds piled on the first 10 goals of the second quarter and a run of nine unanswered goals set up a 39-19 half-time lead.
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They maintained that momentum despite multiple changes at in the second half, outscoring Tonga 24-9 in the third period and 22-10 in the last.
Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich made three changes to the starting seven she deployed in their first game.
Goal attack Kiera Austin, centre Jamie-Lee Price and goal defender Sarah Klau came in for Steph Wood, Paige Hadley and Sunday Aryang, respectively. Price was named player of the match.
As she did in the first game, Marinkovich brought her five bench players on for the second half, with vice-captain Wood earning her 50th Test cap and Austin switching to wing attack.
Former Diamonds player Mo’onia Gerard spent time at both goal defence and goal keeper for Tonga, who had two-time NSW Swifts Super Netball title-winning coach Briony Akle as their assistant coach.
Australia will face world No 19 Fiji in their last pool game on Sunday.
Cbn Grinding Wheel Earlier, defending world champions New Zealand also notched their second win, but were made to work for their 54-44 victory over Uganda.