07 November, 2009
Dangerous batsman Mark Cosgrove will miss South Australia's upcoming Sheffield Shield match against Queensland with a hamstring injury.
Cosgrove was named in the Redbacks' initial 12-man squad but failed a fitness test at Adelaide Oval on Friday. The 25-year-old tweaked his hamstring while bowling against Victoria on October 31 and was in a race against time to be available for the top-of-the table clash which starts at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
Cameron Borgas slots into the middle order after making a fighting 90 against Victoria in the Ford Ranger Cup match on Wednesday.
Matthew Weeks also forces his way into the 12, replacing Allan Wise who carried the drinks against the Vics in the four-day fixture.
The Cosgrove injury is not what South Australia needed with their season stalling after a bright start. The Redbacks recorded an outright victory against the Tigers in their opening game but since then have lost three Ford Ranger Cup matches and battled to draw a Shield game with the Bushrangers.
But Redbacks coach Mark Sorell said his team won't be trying anything too different against the Bulls.
"I think we've got to stick with what we've done, I thought we came out of the last game fairly well considering the first couple of days so we've got to carry it forward to this one," Sorell said.
"We need to make sure our batting is right to be honest, to be able to control the game a bit more than that second game so it'll be important for us to focus on that."
"Get an opportunity to bat, to bat well and it sets the game up for our bowlers and a chance to manipulate things with the ball."
South Australia tackles an in-form Queensland line-up which recorded an outright victory over Tasmania during the week.
The Bulls have made one change to their 12 with pace bowler Nathan Rimmington (ankle) cleared to join the squad. He replaces 12th man Nathan Reardon.
Queensland's pace attack has been particularly impressive this season with Scott Walter winning a man-of-the-match award for his 4-34 against the Redbacks in a Ford Ranger Cup clash while Ben Cutting took 6-47 in the team's recent Shield clash.
Sorell said Queensland's bowlers may find the going tougher on the batsmen-friendly Adelaide Oval.
"Ben has been pretty impressive, his returns have been good, even a couple of times last year and through this year. He seems to get the ball in good areas at a reasonable pace, he's quite tall and he can swing it around a bit," Sorell said.
"It'll be interesting to see if there is anything difference for him bowling away from the Gabba, that'll be different for him to contend with. But he just keeps asking good questions of batters, we respect that and our batters will need to be at their best to counter that."