Melbourne Stars’ opener Luke Wright says seeing Rob Quiney collapse in pain with his latest shoulder injury left his teammates feeling gutted.
Former Test opener Quiney landed heavily while fielding during Tuesday night’s BBL game against Hobart Hurricanes at the MCG.
The fifth-placed Hurricanes were sent in to bat and scored 9-131 before the Stars made 5-135 with five balls to spare to jump to a 7-0 win-loss record with one game left in the regular season.
Man-of-the-match Wright hit 52, lifting his tally for the season to 262, which makes him the league’s equal-leading runscorer alongside Melbourne Renegades’ opener Aaron Finch.
The Stars were well-served by medium pacer John Hastings, who claimed 2-15 off four overs after the home side went into the game without pace spearhead Lasith Malinga.
Malinga has been sent home by the Sri Lanka board to work on his fitness ahead of next month’s T20 series in Bangladesh.
Fellow Stars’ quicks Clint McKay and James Faulkner are unavailable because of Australia one-day duties.
The Stars host Perth Scorchers on Monday and have secured home-ground advantage for the semi-finals on February 4 and 5.
While Quiney crosses his fingers and hopes he can play on, Wright says the incident was a bitter blow.
Quiney came out to bat at No.3 in obvious pain and scored 13.
“Everyone just felt sick and gutted for him,” Wright said.
“I knew what he’d done when he was at Essex (Quiney left mid-season to return to Australia for shoulder surgery).
“He’s such a great lad. Everyone loves him here.”
Quiney’s likely absence would further test the Stars’ depth.
“My dad’s come over and I’ve told him to bring his kit to the games if everyone keeps getting called up,” Englishman Wright joked.
“To see Scotty Boland come in on his debut and get a couple of wickets and Marcus Stoinis had his first bowl today and got a couple of wickets, it was big for us.”
Wright will take on several Stars teammates in the three-game Australia-England T20 series starting on January 29 before rejoining the Stars’ camp for their finals campaign.
“We’ve already had a bit of banter,” said Wright, 28.
“Once you get out in the middle you just get on with it. Hopefully England can get a win on this tour.”
