Star fears for drinks duties

NATHAN Coulter-Nile fears he will go from man-of-thematch to carrying the drinks in just three days after a wicketless start to his maiden World Cup campaign.

Coulter-Nile credited recurrent stress fractures in his back for his improved batting, with those bowling injuries forcing him to work on his power hitting over the past few years.

West Australian Liam Davis has emerged as the secret weapon behind CoulterNile’s breakout 92 (60) that rescued Australia after an embarrassing top-order collapse against the West Indies.

“I was working really hard on the red-ball stuff, trying to get in, and [Davis] just said ‘Scrap that, we’re not playing red-ball cricket anymore’ and we just hit balls,” Coulter-Nile said. “I just try to hit balls for six. That’s all I’ve been doing for the last year.

“In all honesty I owe him everything for my batting.”

But Coulter-Nile — who set a new record for runs made by a player entering at No.8 or lower in a World Cup — said he was in the team to take wickets and that left him concerned after leaking 0-70.

Australia plays India tomorrow night in a mouth-watering World Cup clash at London’s The Oval, with bowlers Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon and Kane Richardson all eyeing a debut.

A tired Coulter-Nile tainted his figures when he conceded 16 runs off the final four balls of the innings against West Indies, when victory was assured for Australia.

“We’ve got bowlers waiting to play,” Coulter-Nile said.

“I’m not in the team to make runs, hopefully the top order does that, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I got dropped for the next game. I’m in the team to take wickets and I’ve had two wicketless games [0-36 against Afghanistan], so we’ll see how we go.”

The No.8 joined Steve Smith at the crease in the 31st over after a barrage of fiery short balls rattled the Aussies.

But it was the powerful fast bowler who upstaged Smith, putting on 65 runs in their century stand as Coulter-Nile bettered his previous highest score by 58.

While Coulter-Nile never pondered a maiden century, he remembered looking up at the scoreboard when in the 80s and thinking: “Geez, that’s a lot of runs.”