SPORT
Top of table Strike set
for crucial run chase
By GREY MORRIS
THE Northern Territory has a
full day’s play to make the 306
runs it needs to beat East AsiaPacific in the national country
cricket championships being
played at Albury-Wodonga.
The Strike bowled the combined
side from Japan, Vanuatu and
Papua New Guinea out for 337 on a
postage stamp-sized ground in
Albury and reached a quickfire
32 from five overs before stumps
were drawn.
Top of the table after six matches,
the Territory can complete a fairytale debut at the championships if
they can beat East Asia-Pacific
and Western Australia in the remaining matches.
Coach Ken Vowles is confident his
batsmen are made of the right stuff
after a tough day in the field against
the combined side.
‘‘We looked like chasing around
450 when they were two down for
nearly 200,’’ he said.
‘‘But to our bowlers’ credit they
came back hard and kept the run
chase within limits, which is testament to their ability. Matty Hanna
(3-63) bowled beautifully, as did
Udara Weerasinghe (3-95 and Greg
Brautigam (2-37), it’s over to our
batsmen now.’’
Bad news for Strike is a wrist
injury suffered by skipper Ashley
Williams when a fiercely hit ball
bounced awkwardly as he reached
down to stop it.
The Strike staff applied ice to
the affected region immediately
and sent him to hospital for
precautionary X-rays where no
break was revealed.
‘‘It blew up a bit even after we
applied the ice, but with no break
we’re hoping it settles down so
‘Goober’ can bat in the run chase,’’ a
confident Vowles said.
‘‘Martin Brown and Blayne
Cornford got us away to a flyer on a
ground where the ball races away if
it gets past the fieldsmen.
‘‘With Brett Gardiner and (Darcy)
Short to come next, we’ll re-assess
the batting order after that with
Goober’s injury.
‘‘But we’re confident we can get
the runs, there are plenty of overs
left (80) and the batsmen are
positive, we can’t ask for more
than that.’’
Nielsen backs North
to end form slump
Cougars
land top
Cheetah
By SIMON WHITE
in Adelaide
From Back Page
‘‘We are waiting until tomorrow (Monday),’’ he said.
‘‘While Simon has probably
had a few throwdowns and
picked up a bat he was still
tender at the end of the Test
match in Sydney.
‘‘Our first runaround on
Monday will give him a pretty
clear indication of whether he
is right to go or not.’’
Nielsen said spirits were
high around the team after the
astonishing comeback victory
in Sydney, where a Nathan
Hauritz-led Australia bowled
Pakistan out for 139 on a
dramatic fourth day.
But for all the emotion of
that victory, the coach would
prefer to see a more even fiveday performance at Bellerive
Oval this week.
‘‘It would be nice to finish
our Test match summer now
with a really complete performance,’’ Nielsen said.
‘‘I thought it was a stark
contrast from Melbourne
where we played beautifully
for the whole match to Sydney
where our form fluctuated.
‘‘I’m hoping we can ... just
have a really hard-nosed consistent ... performance.’’
UNDER SIEGE: Marcus North has scored a total of just 126 runs in his past five Tests
Mundine’s well overdue to step up
SYDNEY: Anthony Mundine has the opportunity tonight to extend his family’s extraordinary boxing record against Australian opposition, but fight fans want to know when he
will take on a credible international fighter.
Mundine will fight fellow Sydney-sider
‘‘Deadly’’ Robert Medley for a WBA regional
middleweight title at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
They were originally supposed to fight for
the vacant IBO light middleweight world title,
though that was allegedly scrapped due to
reservations the Mundine camp had about
dealing with the IBO.
The Medley team believed the change was
play some rugby,’’ he said.
Robertson made his
debut for the Cats yesterday in the Casuarina
Invitational Sevens.
And he found the conditions tough at Austar Park.
‘‘It’s not like this in
Zimbabwe,’’ he said.
‘‘We get the heat but not
the humidity.
‘‘It will take me a while
to adjust.’’
Robertson has had offers
to join Super Rugby franchise The Sharks and to
play for the English club
Bath as understudy to
Springbok world cup winner Butch James.
‘‘But I was still in school
and education came first,’’
he said.
‘‘Hopefully, I will try
and get my name up
there again.’’
Unfortunately,
Zimbabwe failed to qualify
for the 2011 World Cup
in NZ.
‘‘We lost in the qualifiers
to Namibia and I got concussed 10 minutes into the
game,’’ he said.
But Robertson will spend
three months in Darwin
before flying home in
March for the start of
the Zimbabwe season
and to prepare for the
under-20 World Cup in
Russia in May.
He helped his country
qualify for that when he
was named Most Valuable
Player of the African qualifying tournament which
Zimbabwe won.
Webb’s talking with his fists
SYDNEY: Carl Webb (pictured)
intends to let his fists rather
than his mouth do the talking
today when he becomes the
latest in a growing band of
rugby league players to have a
professional boxing fight.
The North Queensland,
Queensland and Australian
Test star will fight unheralded
Sydneysider Scott Lewis on the
undercard of the Anthony
Mundine-Robert Medley bout at
Sydney Entertainment Centre.
The powerful 28-year-old for-
made due to Mundine having difficulties
making the light middleweight limit, something he strenuously denied.
Medley (27-2, 17 KOs) looms as a decent test
for Mundine, though he has lost some of the
advantage he would have had fighting at light
middleweight.
Mundine (37-3, 23 KOs) has never lost to
another Australian, a feat which his famous
father Tony also achieved throughout his
entire 15-year professional career.
Mundine, 34, has not fought an internationally recognised overseas opponent since June
2005 when he lost on points in Sydney to
Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler.
www.ntnews.com.au
ward hasn’t ruled out having
further fights, though he is
concentrating on his upcoming
league commitments.
He believes his fledgling boxing career has the support of his
Cowboys team-mates even if he
has received something of a
ribbing about it.
Webb weighed in at 108.3kg,
while Lewis, who has an
undistinguished 1-3 pro record
with all of his losses coming
inside the distance, weighed in
at 103.5kg.
Northern Territory News, Monday, January 11, 2010 — 37
PUB:
AUSTRALIAN coach Tim
Nielsen (pictured) has backed
under-siege batsman Marcus
North to emulate teammate
Michael Hussey and break out
of his form slump sooner
rather than later.
Speaking before flying to
Hobart ahead of Thursday’s
third Test against Pakistan,
Nielsen said North’s place in
the side was safe and that a
total of 126 runs in his past five
Tests painted a misleading
picture of his batting touch.
Fellow West Australian
Hussey had been under similar scrutiny this summer but
rebounded to hit an unbeaten
match-turning century in the
second innings of the second
Test in Sydney.
‘‘In this Test match? He’s
safe,’’ Nielsen said of North.
‘‘We’ll have Phil (Hughes)
there as a standby player for
(the injured) Simon Katich as
we did in Sydney. We must
keep in perspective that it was
only a couple of months ago
that Marcus had three
centuries in five Tests.
‘‘Probably the major thing is
he hasn’t been able to get
through that difficult period
from nought to 20.
‘‘He was a bit unlucky in
that he only got one bat in
Melbourne and chopped one
on. And when he was in the
box seat to get a big score in
Perth he hit a full toss back to
the spinner.
‘‘If he keeps preparing well
and keeps playing his own
way he’ll have success in the
short and long term.’’
Nielsen said Katich would
be given every chance to prove
he had recovered from the
elbow complaint that kept him
out of the Sydney Test.
WSNENT
37
GE:
11-J
TE:
R:
LOK
MDA
Y
C