The Australian Diamonds team, which included seven former-AIS scholarship holders, came from behind to claim the 2011 World Netball Championships title.

It was a thrilling finish, with Australia scoring a goal in the last second of extra time to secure the 58–57 victory over New Zealand at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Trailing by six goals at halftime, second-half substitute Caitlin Bassett converted the winning goal with the last shot of the game, extracting revenge for last year’s Commonwealth Games final defeat and reclaiming the world number one ranking.

‘I’m trying not to cry, this is the most overwhelming, the greatest experience of my life and to be able to do it with such a great team and to have Sharelle here on the sidelines is amazing,’ former AIS athlete Chelsea Pitman said.

‘Norma (Plummer) said we had to lift our intensity at halftime, play our game and not get fazed by what they put out there on court and that’s exactly what we did and we brought it back.

‘We knew we just had to keep possession and get the goal. If we happened to go to another extra time then so be it, but we won.’
With a long rivalry between Australia and New Zealand, the final lived up to all expectations as the Diamonds held their nerve to claim their tenth world title.

‘That was absolutely unbelievable,’ Australian goal shooter Natalie Medhurst said.

‘To be on the other side and feel the disappointment at the Commonwealth Games, I certainly much prefer our result tonight.’

Medhurst paid tribute to her shooting partner Bassett after the match, with her introduction at halftime spurring the Diamonds to victory.

‘She did fantastic, held so well and really changed it up for us down there at the forward line,’ Medhurst said of Bassett.

‘We got some fantastic feeds into her. ‘That’s obviously why Norma did the change and it worked.

‘I can’t believe that third quarter in particular — to come back and peg it back so quickly in such as short amount of time and to finish it off in the end was truly fantastic.

‘Full credit to the girls, we came out in the extra time and kept at it to finish it off and Caitlin nailed that goal.’

Medhurst was named Player of the Match.

Australian shooting stats:

Catherine Cox: 12/16 (75 per cent)

Natalie Medhurst: 19/23 (83 per cent)

Caitlin Bassett 27/30 (90 per cent)