www.ntnews.com.au Wednesday, February 29, 2012. NT NEWS. 51

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Holden commits to teams

HOLDEN has extended its deals with the HoldenRacing Team and TeamVodafone, shoring up the twoV8 Supercar powerhouses ahead of Nissan’s entryinto the championship in 2013. The newswill be arelief to Holden fans, especially after speculationTeamVodafone could be poached by a rivalmanufacturer. Nissanwas the first manufacturer toconfirm joining Holden and Ford in the V8s, withAmerican brand Chrysler also expected to join.

Whincup to race in Clipsal

V8 SUPERCARS champion JamieWhincup says hewillcompete in this weekend’s season-opening Clipsal500meeting despitemourning the death of hisfather. Whincup’s father David died on Sunday after ashort battle with lymphoma cancer. ‘‘Last weekwaswithout a doubt the toughest week ofmy life,’’Whincup said. ‘‘Dad rode themotorsport wavewithme every step of theway, which I plan to still be thecase right into the future.’’

Kensethwins Daytona 500

MATT Kenseth capped a crazy 36 hours for NASCARbywinning the first postponed Daytona 500 in 55editions of themarquee event in Florida. Kensethheld off Dale Earnhardt Jr and Roush Fenway Racingteammate Greg Biffle over a two-lap finish.Australian former V8 Supercar driver MarcosAmbrose ran as high as second during the first half ofthe 200-lap race but finished 13th after beinginvolved in a late incident.

Ricciardo must prove he can fill Webber’s shoesDANIEL Ricciardo has beentold he needs to prove he has awow factor if he is to succeedMark Webber at Red Bull.

Ricciardo will begin hisfirst full Formula One seasonwith Toro Rosso at nextmonth’s season-opening Aust-ralian Grand Prix.

He and French rookie Jean-

Eric Vergne, 21, have been in-stalled in Toro Rosso’s twocars after Swiss driver Sebas-tien Buemi and SpaniardJaime Alguersuari weredumped. Red Bull owner Die-trich Mateschitz said hismain aim was to elevate oneof the Torro Rosso drivers tothe Red Bull team.

‘‘Daniel Ricciardo andJean-Eric Vergne are highlytalented and have great poten-tial, but the question will onlyarise if, for example, Webberstops at the end of 2012,’’Mateschitz said.

Webber plans to continuein 2013 but, in any case, ToroRosso boss Franz Tost says

Ricciardo or Vergne are like-ly to need more than thisseason to show they are suit-able for Red Bull.

And, Tost says, they willhave to display ‘‘the rightstuff’’ and ‘‘a wow effect’’.

‘‘When we talk about theright stuff for Red Bull Racingwe are talking about a double

world championship-winningteam, which means thedrivers who get elevatedthere must have the same ab-ility to win races and cham-pionships,’’ Tost said.

‘‘I would say that this woweffect is not so easily manage-able in a first season — but itdefinitely has to be delivered

in the second season. Bothhave done extremely well inall the series they’ve raced inbefore entering F1 and theyshowed potential at the test(in Spain recently).’’

Tost said Ricciardo, with 11races for HRT in F1 last year,has the edge over Vergne, buthe expects both to improve.

Aussies ride Coast waves to perfection

Stephanie Gilmore won her Roxy Pro quarter-final at Snapper Rocks yesterday and will nowface fellow Australian Sally Fitzgibbons in the semi-finals Picture: SCOTT FLETCHER

LOCAL hero Joel Parkinsonscored the competition’s firstperfect 10 to reach thequarter-final of the men’sworld surfing championshipevent on the Gold Coast.

The women’s event saw theelimination of the world anddefending Roxy Pro champ-ion Carissa Moore, as all foursemi-final places were filledby Australians.

After being beaten in a non-elimination round early, asteely-eyed Parkinson cameout firing. Not even the painof a bluebottle sting could dis-tract him as he grabbed the10-point wave with five min-utes remaining to leave fel-low Queenslander JulianWilson with no hope of catch-ing up. Parkinson’s memoryof the ride was patchy.

‘‘I couldn’t remember exac-tly how many turns I did andI heard the commentator saywhat score do you want togive it and I was like, ‘I’ll giveit a 10’,’’ he said. ‘‘I feel niceand relaxed and on that lastwave I felt like some aggress-ion finally came out, andthat’s what I wanted to feel.’’

Parkinson comes upagainst Jordy Smith in thequarter-final in what couldbe a lively meeting — in theirlast meeting at SnapperRocks in 2011 the South Af-rican eliminated Parkinsonfrom the event in Round 5.

‘‘That’s what makes forhealthy competition, they’rethe ones you live for andyou’re happy to getinvolved in a real rivalry,’’Parkinson said.

The other quarter-finalheats pit Gold Coaster JoshKerr against the red hot KellySlater, Owen Wright againstBrazil’s Adriano De Souzaand Taj Burrow against fel-low Aussie Adrian Buchan.

In the upset of the day,Tyler Wright pulled off astunning coup, eliminatingMoore, with Laura Enever,world No. 2 Sally Fitzgibbonsand local favourite StephanieGilmore all winning theirheats to make the semi-finalsan all-Australian contest.

Moore’s elimination alsomeans she loses her worldNo. 1 ranking.

Fitzgibbons will meet Gil-more in the semi-finals.

With conditions deteriorat-ing, a decision will be madeearly this morning whetherto put both events onhold, with competition un-likely to resume before theweekend.

Indiansstriketo stayaliveCRICKET

SCORECARD

India v Sri Lankaat BlundstoneArena, HobartOne-Day InternationalSri Lanka InningsM JAYAWARDENE c Sehwagb Jadeja . . . . . . . . . . . . 22TDILSHAN not out . . . . 160KSANGAKKARA b Kumar . . 105TPERERA run out (Tendulkar) . . 3AMATHEWS c Ashwin b Khan . . 14DCHANDIMAL not out . . . . 2Sundries (3lb 11w) . . . . . . 14FOURwickets for . . . . 320Fall: 49 (Jayawardene), 249(Sangakkara), 279 (Perera), 309(Mathews).Bowling: Z Khan 9-0-61-1 (2w), PKumar 9-0-64-1 (4w/9), U Yadav8-0-56-0, R Jadeja 9-0-43-1, R Ashwin10-0-52-0, V Sehwag 3-0-24-0, SRaina 2-0-17-0.Batting time: 197mins.Overs: 50.India InningsV SEHWAG c Dilshan bMaharoof 30S TENDULKAR lbw bMalinga . . 39GGAMBHIR run out (Chandimal) 63VKOHLI not out . . . . . . 133SRAINA not out . . . . . . . . 40Sundries (4b 6lb 6w) . . . . . . 16THREEwickets for . . . . 321Fall: 54 (Sehwag), 86 (Tendulkar),201 (Gambhir).Bowling: LMalinga 7.4-0-96-1(2w/3), N Kulasekera 8-0-71-0 (1w), FMaharoof 3-0-21-1, T Perera 7-0-59-0(1w), AMathews 7-0-44-0, R Herath4-0-20-0 (1w).Batting time: 175mins.Overs: 36.4.Umpires: Asad Rauf (PAK), SimonTaufel (AUS).MatchReferee: ChrisBroad (ENG).Third Umpire: SimonFry (AUS).Indiawon by 7wickets.Man of theMatch:Virat Kohli (India).

INDIA have blasted theirway to 3-321 in 36.4 overs fora stunning bonus-point winover Sri Lanka to prolongtheir Australian tour until atleast Friday.

Needing the improbabletarget from 40 overs to earn abonus point win at Belleriveand keep their tournamentalive, Virat Kohli smashed133 off 86 balls to lead the In-dians to the most extraordin-ary run-chase witnessed onAustralian soil.

Kohli, who hit 16 fours andtwo sixes, put on 115 withGautam Gambhir (63 off 64)and 120 with Suresh Raina toblow the Sri Lankans away.

In an incredible 35th over,Kohli and Raina took 24 offSri Lankan pace spearheadLasith Malinga (1-96) to eraseany doubt that India wouldreach the target within the 40overs.

The Indians’ next assign-ment will be the couch onFriday, when they will hopeto watch Australia beat theSri Lankans so they can pro-gress to play the home side inthe best-of-three final series.

India may yet salvagesomething from a horrortour, while batting great Sa-chin Tendulkar, who helpedgenerate the momentum forhis side with 39 off 30 balls,may not have yet played hislast game in Australia.

Tendulkar and VirenderSehwag (30 off 15) smashed 50off just 33 balls to have the

Indian fans believing a mir-acle was possible. They wereright and the 3467 fans wenthome knowing they wit-nessed something special.

On a drama-filled evening,a power failure delayed playbetween innings for nearlyan hour.