Allrounder Oram to miss match against Australia

St George's, Apr 19 (UNI) New Zealand star allrounder Jacob Oram will sit out against Australia in the Super Eights league match of the World Cup here tomorrow.

The decision to rest Oram was taken today after he suffered recurrence of a heel injury, according to coach John Bracewell.

''We will be going in with our strongest side for this game except Jacob Oram who won't be available because of a problem with his heel,'' Bracewell told mediapersons.

The coach however added that Oram will be fit for the semi-final match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday at Kingston, Jamaica.

Bracewell asserted that decision to rest the allrounder was more of a precautionary thing in order to have him fit for the all important semi-final clash.

''He had it the (injury) for a period of time during the home series. The diagnosis is that the initial impact is the worse case scenario, but he's been able to nurse it through. All of a sudden it's got a little bit more serious, so we've just got to take it easy.

''We talked with him about the possibility of playing him as a batter only but we didn't want to weaken the balance of the side by going in a bowler short,'' he added.

Oram has scored 162 runs at an average of 40.50 at this World Cup and taken nine wickets at 21.33 apiece.

UNI