NICHOLS Point will be sweating on the fitness of key bowling recruit Luke Coates after the paceman left the field with an ankle injury during his side’s win over Mildura Settlers in Sunraysia Cricket Association action on Saturday.
Coates had bowled four overs when he appeared to roll his ankle fielding a ball on the boundary against his old side and was in severe pain. He was helped from the field and took no further part in the game.
Pointers captain Brad Thomas hoped the injury wasn’t as serious as initially thought.
“(We) will just have to wait and see, the injury didn’t look good at first and there was some swelling,” he said. “But he was up and walking on it after the game so, fingers crossed, it’s nothing major and we can assess it later in the week.”
Coates had battled a back injury in his final season with Settlers and over the pre-season at his new club.
Nichols Point were dealt a further blow when all-rounder Dean Fulco pulled up lame in his second over, clutching his hamstring.
“Dean definitely didn’t look great with the hamstring so I expect he will miss a couple of weeks,” Thomas said.
The Pointers sit second on the SCA ladder going into this weekend’s clash with Coomealla Wentworth following wins in their opening two games.
They did it the hard way at the weekend with Settlers looking like they were cruising to victory at 2/178 in the 30th over chasing Nichols Point’s 7/203 before losing 8/23 to fall two runs short.
“(I’m) super proud of the boys. It’s probably one of the best wins I’ve had from the position we were in,” Thomas said.
“I guess just staying in the game and not giving up were the main things.
“The boys just kept putting the ball in the right areas and we were lucky enough to get the set batsmen out and put pressure on the new batsmen.”
