Steph Wood has shone for Australia's Diamonds with an inspired shooting display to help them down world champions New Zealand and power into the final of the Netball Quad Series in Cape Town.
Wood had been frustrated by what she felt was a sub-par display by her standards in the opening win against England but the goal attack was back to her immaculate best on Sunday (Monday AEDT), with her fourth-quarter long shots a key to Australia's 59-57 victory.
With a perfect record after two games, coach Stacey Marinkovich's team were delighted to seal their place in Wednesday's (Thursday AEDT) final with a game to spare as they go for a seventh triumph in eight editions of the four-team event.
Their next game will be against hosts South Africa on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), while New Zealand and England will battle it out in the other match, with the winners likely to meet the Diamonds in the showdown.
If it's a rematch with the Silver Ferns, it promises to be another close affair after the world's leading two sides - who'd won two matches apiece in October's Constellation Cup - again proved hard to separate in a tough, physical encounter at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Just as against England, when they came back from a nine-goal deficit, slow-starting Australia had to show their mettle against their trans-Tasman rivals when slipping behind by eight soon after the start of the second quarter.
They fought back to narrow the deficit to 29-28 down at halftime after a run of nine out of 10 goals, and then edged into a 44-43 lead going into the final quarter thanks to a late third-quarter strike from their on-song goal shooter Cara Koenen.
Then Wood, who also provided 25 feeds, really stamped her authority, shooting with deadly accuracy from distance to constantly keep the scoreboard pressure on the Ferns, who were finding it increasingly hard to puncture the Courtney Bruce-led defence at the other end.
Ending with 21 goals from 24 attempts, the 31-year-old star's excellent movement particularly caused problems for the towering but less mobile New Zealand defender Kelly Jury, who'd been thrust into the final-quarter fray.
Australia were able to stretch out their lead to five and though the Silver Ferns made a late charge to get the score to within two goals with a minute left, the excellent Koenen sank her 38th goal out of 40 attempts - a 95 per cent success rate - to seal the win.
