2002-03 Annual R eport 2002-03 Annual R eport - Australian Sports ...

Back, left to right: Aaron O’Brien, Nathan Pilon, Douglas Bollinger, Greg Mail, Stephen Phillips, Brad Haddin.
Middle, left to right: Stephen Rixon (Coach), Phil Jaques, Paul Maraziotis, Dominic Thornely, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Grant Lambert, Shawn Bradstreet, Don Nash,
Trevor Bayliss (Assistant Coach).
Front, left to right: Simon Katich, Michael Slater, Brett Lee, Shane Lee (Vice-captain), Corey Richards, Mark Waugh, Stuart MacGill.
ING CUP, 2002-03
For the third year in a row, the New South Wales Blues won the
domestic one-day competition, the ING Cup, despite failing to
secure home advantage. This time they beat the Western Warriors
in convincing fashion at the W.A.C.A Ground in February 2003.
After restricting the home side to 207 all out, the Blues took
control thanks to captain Stephen Waugh and former Warriors
player Simon Katich. The pair added 131 runs in just 18 overs of
mayhem and by the time Waugh, who passed a fitness test on a
hamstring injury to play in the match, was dismissed for 88 from
only 51 balls, the result was beyond doubt. Katich finished
unbeaten on 75 while Stuart Clark claimed the player of the
match award for his bowling figures of 3-34.
The Blues’ success in reaching the final in the first place was
down to its players holding their collective nerve while the
Queensland Bulls faltered. The Bulls went down to the Tasmanian
Tigers in its last of the qualifying matches, but the Blues still had
to beat the Southern Redbacks the following day to pip them to a
place in the final. Not only did Waugh’s men do just that, they did
it in front of the largest crowd ever for a domestic one-day match
in New South Wales – 25,763 fans turned out for the inaugural
match at Telstra Stadium on 16 February.
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The Blues had the most potent attack in the competition with
Nathan Bracken, Shawn Bradstreet, Stuart Clark and Stuart
MacGill all claiming 10 or more wickets. In the batting stakes
Michael Clark, Waugh, his brother Mark and Simon Katich all
topped 300 runs.
The Warriors could boast the ING Cup Player of the Year in
Justin Langer who, like Waugh, reminded the selectors of his
abilities as a one-day player by scoring 434 runs, as well as the
two leading wicket-takers in the competition in Brad Williams
(21) and Jo Angel (16).
Of the other sides, the Bulls’ Nathan Hauritz and James Hopes
each took 14 wickets, but injuries and international calls hit its
top order hard. The Tigers remained in contention until losing
their penultimate match against the Warriors in Hobart, but that
was a vast improvement on its form of the previous year when it
finished last. The Bushrangers’ one-day form was modest while
the Redbacks, without its talisman Darren Lehmann for seven of
its ten matches, managed just one win, even though Greg
Blewett finished as the leading run-scorer in the competition
with 486 runs.
ING Cup, 2002-03