Stanger in shock Aussie honour

AN ELATED Chris Stanger says he’s shocked to win Australian Country honours despite leading Queensland with the ball at the national titles.

The Far North all-rounder, who plays for Norths, said it was an “unbelievable” honour in just his second carnival with the Brahmans.

“It’s one of those things where a lot of luck’s got to go your way,” Stanger said.

“I don’t really have too many words for it, because I’m just kind of shocked to get picked as well.

“I was up there with the fifth-most wickets but I didn’t really play much of a role with the bat, but I obviously did just enough.”

While Queensland dominated the statistics and had five players named in the merit team, a number of close losses condemned them to third place overall.

“I think statistically we did really well,” Stanger said. “We definitely believed we had the best team there; we just didn’t put it all together at the right times and lost a couple of close ones that cost us the carnival.”

Queensland finished on a high with an eight-wicket win against Victoria on Saturday, which inadvertently handed the title to NSW, who had a double bonus-point victory to win on net run rate.

“We also play for a shield against the Vics in the onedayer as well, so that always matters just that little bit more,” Stanger said.

Stanger said Jake Roach would have been close to national honours if he hadn’t missed the best part of four T20 matches due to injury.

Michael Salerno took 5-50 in the last fixture on Saturday to join Stanger on 15 wickets for the carnival.

Roach’s feat of 12 wickets for the carnival was all the more impressive as he suffered what was revealed to be a pinched diaphragm in the first match.

While Queensland strength and conditioning staff worked wonders daily to get him back on the park, the all-rounder may be forced to miss matches for Mulgrave to return to 100 per cent. Roach has been advised to take a few weeks off to recover or risk aggravating the injury, which could keep him sidelined for 12 months.

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