54 — Centralian Advocate, Friday, February 14, 2014

54 SPORT FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14 2014

NSW and WA line up for decidermatchNEW South Wales and WestAustralia have been the domi-nant sides in the State and Ter-ritory Division of the ImparjaCup.

Both sides are unbeatenafter day three of the Indigen-ous cricket tournament, withNSW top of the ladder on fourwins from as many matchesand WA not far behind on 3-0.

The Sandgropers posted aconvincing day one victoryover hosts Northern Territorybefore two more wins againstTasmania and South Australiarespectively. As for the Blues,who reached last year’s grandfinal before going down toQueensland, they proved theycould win from any situation.

Defending championQueensland looks a shadow ofthe side that won the 2013 Im-parja Cup, and is unlikely to

feature in the decider at TIOTraeger Park Oval tomorrowevening.

The Maroons were 0-2 afterday one before getting over theline against Tasmania by 64runs on Tuesday.

There has been no centuriesso far, with QueenslanderPreston White (90) getting theclosest. With the ball, it’s hardto beat West Aussie MichaelBailey’s astonishing 5-0against NT.

This morning’s matches seeladder-leaders WA and NewSouth Wales go head-to-headat Albrecht Oval, whileQueensland and NT do battleat Larapinta Oval. In the mid-day match, Victoria clasheswith border rivals South Aus-tralia at Larapinta Oval.

The semi-finals tomorrowmorning will be one versusfour and two versus three, withthe winners playing off in thegrand final.

Jordan McArdle

IMPARJA CUP

Michael Bailey grabbed 5-0

against the NT in Imparja

Cup. Picture: DARRIAN TRAYNOR

Bailey blazing his path to prominenceWESTERN   Australian all-rounder Michael Bailey is justanother example of the successof the Imparja Cup Indigenouscricket tournament.

Bailey, who plays his clubcricket for WACA first gradeoutfit Gosnells, will go fromleading the Sandgropers’ inAlice Springs this week totraining with the WA Future’sLeague side under former Testbatsman Geoff Marsh.

He is on his way to followingthe likes of Josh Lalor (NSW)and Dan Christian (Victoriaand Australia) to be the nextindigenous first-class cricketer.

“I’ve been selected in theWA under-23s developmentsquad for WA, so I’ll be train-ing with the Warriors for therest of the season,’’ he said.

The WACA has been abreeding ground for top bats-man with Shaun Marsh, MikeHussey, Adam Gilchrist and Damien Martyn all donningthe baggy green in recent times.

“Hopefully I can have a goodpre-season and who knowswhat can come my way if I canget off to a good season (withGosnells) in the A Grade.’’

With 790 runs at 46.5 forGosnells so far this season,Bailey was rewarded for hissublime form with the WAsquad call-up.

Better known for his swash-buckling batting, Bailey madeheadlines for his bowling per-formances on the opening dayof the Imparja Cup on Monday.

He bowled a sensational 5-0from 3.2 overs with his left-armorthodox spinners to bowl theNT out for 56.

“I like to bowl in Twenty20s,I love it when batsmen are try-ing to flog me out of the parkbecause your more chance ofgetting a wicket,’’ he said.

Bowhunters aim to win new converts

CAVE01Z01MA - V0

Junior bowler gives Gapview a horror day

FEDERAL ASbuild junior div-ision two bowler Willam Ke-laart had a huge day toremember at Flynn Driveagainst Gapview Works.

He helped skittle the Worksteam for 66 in their first in-nings by taking an astonishing5-1 in a two-over spell as histeam went on to record acrushing outright win.

He added another wicket tohis name when GapviewWorks batted a second time torecord match figures of 6-3.

Teammates Moses Waring(3-0), Callum Saville and JakeAuricht also did the damage asthe Works were dismissed forjust 33 in heir second innings.

Injured Ellis in doubt for WorksGUN Gapview Works all-rounder Ben Ellis is lookingdoubtful for Sunday’s one-dayclash with Federal ASbuild atAlbrecht Oval.

The NT under-19s rep-resentative is battling a kneeinjury and his skipper DanGardiner said if he played hewas unlikely bowl.

“Ben Ellis’ chances of bowl-ing are very slim,” he said.

“We are still assessingwhether he will be able to batand field.”

The possible loss comeswith the inclusions of AndrewPilbrow and Nathan Kelleher.

Gardiner said Workswouldn’t be getting too farahead of themselves, despite

toppling West at the weekend.“Every week is different and

we can’t dwell on a game we al-most lost,” he said.

“However, our bowling wasparticularly good and we put alot of balls in the right areasand held our catches.”

It’s a must-win game forFederal, who are six points be-hind second-placed Gapviewwith two rounds remaining.

The Jack Harding-captain-ed side will be looking forstrong performances from all-rounders Tom Clements andSam Clifton to keep theirgrand final hopes alive.

Brodie Driscoll-Court is an-other bowler capable of amatchwinning performance,

while hard-hitting openerRandeep Kalyan could slotback into the top order.

West captain Leigh Pol-kinghorne returns to the AGrade line-up after being un-available last round.

Polkinghorne said battingwould be a massive focus head-ing into this weekend’s battleagainst the Rovers.

“I want to see our blokestough it out a little bit andvalue their wickets,’’ he said.

PROBuild will sorely missNT under-19s all-rounderDaniel Clarke, who has a kneeinjury.

The one-day final will beplayed on February 23 at Al-brecht Oval.

B Grade grand final down to threeTHREE teams are left in thehunt for B Grade grand finalberths heading into round 10on Sunday.

Ladder-leaders Federal AS-build have been the most im-pressive team in the 40-overformat, winning seven out ofnine matches.

The Demons take on PRO-Build Rovers at Charles Dar-win University Oval in what isseemingly a one-sided affair.

It has been a tough season

for the Rovers’ B Graders, withjust one win from eight match-es in 2013-14.

The Gapview Works versusWest match is shaping up to bethe match of the round, withboth sides coming off victoriesin round nine.

Gapview (6-3) are aboveWest (4-5), but the Bloodshave been in solid form in boththeir one-day and Twenty20matches.

In the C Grade, it’s looking

like a Federal ASbuild v PRO-Build Rovers Twenty20 grandfinal with one round to play.

The Demons, who are allbut assured of a place in the de-cider on February 22, playWest at Flynn Drive from12.30pm.

Gapview Works are upagainst PROBuild Rovers inthe second match of the dou-ble-header from 3.30pm.

All B Grade matches start at12.30pm.

Statistics for themonth of February

Average daily max temp: 35.1

Average daily min temp: 20.7

Record highest temp: 44.7c on 2 Feb 1998

Record lowest temp: 8.5c on 24 Feb 1949

Average monthly rainfall: 43.8

Highest monthly rainfall: 241.6 in 2000

Rainfall this month: 44.0mm

Total rainfall last month: 31.6mm

Total rainfall this year: 75.6 mm

Total rainfall last year: 176mm

Record annual rainfall: 782.5 in 1974

Sunrise: 6.21am Sunset: 7.17pm

Outlook issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for Friday:Late shower

Forecast:

Friday 14: 37 (25) Saturday 15: 32 (25) Sunday 16: 29(21) Monday 17: 32 (21)