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Dragons dealt blow with Maclean injuryRUGBY LEAGUE

ByGREGORMACTAGGART

Jesse Maclean

NIGHTCLIFF’S chances ofwinning the NTRL A-gradepremiership have been dealta blow with influentialplayer-coach Jesse Macleanout for the remainder of theseason due to a knee injury.

Maclean will spend the next12 months on the sidelinesafter rupturing the anteriorcruciate ligament in his leftknee during last week’s 26-14loss to Brothers.

‘‘I just got caught in a reallyawkward spot, there wasbarely any force, but I knewstraight away it was bad,’’ hesaid. ‘‘Even the Brothers boyssaid they heard a loud pop

and I couldn’tmove at all.’’

The timing ofhis injury couldnot come at aworse time forthe Dragons, just

one round from the start ofthe 2013 finals series.

But putting on his coach’shat, Maclean is confidentNightcliff can still prove abonafide title contender andwill get a good gauge of wherethey stand against leagueleaders Palmerston today atRichardson Park.

‘‘We know the match willnot affect the ladder, but allour players are on the samepage that we want to winevery game,’’ Maclean said.

‘‘Palmerston is the team tobeat and there will be more onthe line when we play them inthe first week of the finals,but this game still means a lotto our club.’’

The Dragons inflicted theRaiders’ lone defeat of 2013when they last met in Round14, but high-flying Palmer-ston has been the dominantside since that point, runningin 284 points and concedingjust 40 during their past fivematches.

Raiders coach Geoff Creganhas a luxury of options tochoose from, considering thelikes of Trenton Smith, BradSaunders, Chris O’Shannessyand Jeromie Edwards wereall missing last week.

In today’s other games,Katherine can take a majorstep towards securing the lastfinals berth with a victoryagainst University, who arelooking to avoid taking homethe dreaded wooden-spoon.

If the Tigers live up toexpectations and win, thatwill set the scene for the7.30pm match featuringBrothers and Litchfield.

The Brethren is locked intothird spot, but the Bears arelikely to face the situationwhere they need to win tobook a spot for September.

If Katherine lose, then theBrothers-Litchfield matchwill be a dead rubber, a dressrehearsal ahead of nextweek’s minor semi-final.

Finch full of fightAustralia’s Aaron Finch (left) celebrates his Twenty20 century to the despair of England’s Stuart Broad Picture: GETTY IMAGES

SCORECARDEngland vAustraliaTwenty20 —match one of twoat TheRose Bowl, SouthamptonAustralia inningsDWARNER c Buttler b Broad . . 1

AFINCH b Dernbach . . . . 156

SMARSH c Lumb b Briggs . . . . 28

SWATSON b Dernbach . . . . 37

GMAXWELL b Dernbach . . . . 1

GBAILEY lbw Finn . . . . . . 1

MWADE not out . . . . . . . . 15

J FAULKNER not out . . . . . . 5

Sundries (2lb 2w) . . . . . . . . 4

SIXwickets for . . . . . . 248Fall: 11 (Warner), 125 (Marsh), 226

(Finch), 227 (Watson), 228 (Bailey),

242 (Maxwell).

Bowling: S Finn 4-0-45-1 (1w), S

Broad 4-0-47-1, J Dernbach 4-0-34-3,

D Briggs 4-0-51-1 (1w), R Bopara

1-0-15-0, J Root 1-0-27-0, LWright

2-0-27-0.

Batting time: 85mins.Overs: 20.England inningsM LUMB lbw Johnson . . . . . . 22

AHALES cWade b Hazlewood . . 8

LWRIGHT cWade b Hazlewood . . 4

EMORGAN c Maxwell b Johnson 0

J ROOT not out . . . . . . . . 90

RBOPARA cWarner bWatson . . 45

J BUTTLER b Faulkner . . . . . . 27

SBROAD not out . . . . . . . . 4

Sundries (1b 6w 2nb) . . . . . . 9

SIXwickets for . . . . . . 209Fall: 33 (Lumb), 33 (Hales), 37

(Wright), 42 (Morgan), 137 (Bopara),

203 (Buttler).

Bowling:M Johnson 4-1-41-2 (2w

2nb), J Hazlewood 4-0-43-2 (1w), F

Ahmed 4-0-43-0 (1w), SWatson

4-0-42-1 (1w), J Faulkner 4-0-39-1

(1w).

Batting time: 95mins.Overs: 20.Umpires: Rob Bailey (ENG), Tim

Robinson (ENG).Match referee:RoshanMahanama (SRI).Thirdumpire:Michael Gough (ENG).

Australiawon by 39 runsMan of thematch: Aaron Finch

CRICKET

AUSTRALIAN opener AaronFinch hopes his world recordTwenty20 knock can becareer-defining after finallyannouncing his arrival onthe international stage.

The Victorian blasted 156off 63 balls — the highest indi-vidual score in a T20 inter-

national — in Australia’s39-run win over England atThe Rose Bowl in Southamp-ton yesterday (NT time).

The knock helped end awinless run of more than 200days in all formats of cricketfor Australia.

It also came at a crucialtime for right-hander Finch,who had managed only

modest numbers in six pre-vious T20 and seven one-dayinternational appearances.

‘‘Being in and out of theside is never ideal and I sup-pose last year I let a couple ofchances slip,’’ Finch said.

‘‘For my own confidenceand probably for the selec-tors’ confidence in me, it’snice to get a big score and re-

pay a bit of that faith in me.Hopefully I’ve staked a prettygood claim for the rest of theseries and I can stay on anddo well in the one-dayers.’’

Finch’s innings featured 14sixes. He hit sixes all aroundthe ground, including off hisfirst ball and when bringingup his 50, 100 and 150.

Finch smashed the pre-

vious international record of123 set by the New ZealandBlack Caps’ Brendan McCul-lum and became the firstAustralian to score a centuryin T20 internationals.

It helped Australia to 6-248in their first innings, thesecond biggest T20 score inhistory, before England re-sponded with 6-209.

Ashesslip outof handsBy ELIZA SEWELL

CAPTAIN Jodie Fields saidshe was gutted after theSouthern Stars lost the As-hes, compounding Austral-ian cricket’s shocking Eng-lish summer.

The Southern Stars en-tered the series as the No. 1side in all forms and wereexpected to give Australiancricket fans some joy afterthe men’s team lost its As-hes series 3-0.

But England rallied ontheir home turf to regain theAshes, with one match stillto be played tonight.

Australia had needed towin at Southampton earlyyesterday and the finalTwenty20 match to draw theseries and retain the Ashes.

England won the secondTwenty20 at the Rose Bowlon the back of a magnificentunbeaten 80 by LydiaGreenway after the hostshad been reduced to 3-9 inthe third over.

Australia earlier hadstruggled to a sub-par 7-127.

‘‘I’m pretty gutted to behonest,’’ Fields said.

‘‘To sit here and to havelost the Ashes. Particularlyafter the men lost, we saw itas our responsibility towork hard to bring it homeand now both Australianteams have gone home with-out the Ashes.’’

Tomic revises goals after lossTENNIS

BERNARD Tomic seemsvague about how much heknew of Daniel Evans beforethe British qualifier dumpedhim out of the second roundof the US Open — but the vic-tor has a sharper memory.

The world No. 179 claimedafter his 1-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 up-set win that Tomic’s fatherJohn had refused to allowhim to practise with Bernardin Miami last year.

‘‘I was there playing qual-lies (qualifiers),’’ said Evans.

‘‘His dad sort of fobbedme off and said I wasn’tgood enough to practise withhim, yeah.’’

If success is the best re-venge, Evans has it in the

bag. He has a maiden third-round spot at a Grand Slamlined up.

Tomic, meanwhile, has re-vised his rankings wish listafter being sent packingprematurely yet again.

The world No. 56 made aconfident post-Wimbledondeclaration that his gamehad him headed to the top 10but Tomic has lowered his ex-pectations, saying top-30 byseason’s end is the new goal.

With only one win out ofthe three tournaments heplayed before the US Open,the 20-year-old admits hisseason has been patchy.

‘‘Probably similar to lastyear — just up and down,’’Tomic said.

‘‘I don’t know. I play very

good. I lose for a few months,then I play good again, then itfalls down.’’

When asked about whyhe let the match get away,Tomic conceded he losthis nerve.

‘‘Just felt afraid to go afterthe ball. Wasn’t playing inthe court like the first set,’’he said.

‘‘Just shows you could beup 6-1, 3-love. If you lose thatbreak, a guy comes back inthe match — it can change.’’

Rafael Nadal and RogerFederer moved closer to afirst US Open meeting withsecond-round triumphs,while top seeds Serena Wil-liams and Victoria Azarenkaalso advanced.

Spanish second seed Nadal,

a 12-time Grand Slam winnerwho has nine titles since end-ing a seven-month injury lay-off in February, beatBrazilian Rogerio DutraSilva 6-2 6-1 6-0 in 92 minutes.

‘‘I was solid with myserve,’’ said Nadal. ‘‘I starteda little slower but, when thematch was coming on, I felt Iplayed better and better.’’

Swiss 17-time Grand Slamchampion Federer, at a lowlyseventh seeding, fired 37 win-ners in beating Argentina’s48th-ranked Carlos Berlocq6-3 6-2 6-1 in 95 minutes.

On the women’s side, de-fending champion Williamsdowned 77th-ranked GalinaVoskoboeva 6-3 6-0, andsecond seed Azarenka beatAleksandra Wozniak 6-3 6-1.