The XXXX Queensland Bulls will go into tomorrow’s crunch Pura Cup clash with the Victorian Bushrangers at the Gabba under the guidance of new captain Martin Love.

Queensland Cricket12-Mar-2002The XXXX Queensland Bulls will go into tomorrow’s crunch Pura Cup clashwith the Victorian Bushrangers at the Gabba under the guidance of newcaptain Martin Love.Love was today appointed to take over from regular captain Stuart Lawfor the match, after Law was ruled out with a hand injury at practicethis morning.Law, who had made his comeback from a broken knuckle in the Bulls’ firstinnings win over NSW earlier this month, suffered a heavy blow on thesame hand while fielding for Wynnum-Manly in the Brisbane XXXX Firstgrade semi-final against Sandgate-Redcliffe on Sunday.He attempted to bat today but was ruled out during the session, withClinton Perren returned to the Bulls line-up in his place.Love was confirmed as captain by the Queensland Cricket Board and willtake on the role for the first time, becoming Queensland’s 47th firstclass cricket captain in the process.”Obviously it will be a great honour to captain Queensland but I won’tbe doing anything radically different in terms of the team," he said.”We’ve always had a good core of experience in the side and I’ll berelying on those players to make sure we approach this game in the rightframe of mind.”Love, who captained the Prime Minister’s XI last week against the ATSICChairman’s XI, will shoulder the additional burden of leading the Bulls’rookie batting line-up in the absence of the Pura Cup’s leading scorerJimmy Maher.Love, who is averaging 70.38 in domestic four-day cricket this season,has scored 996 first class runs this season and 915 Pura Cup runs andwill have his sights on passing 1000 runs for the first time inAustralia since 1994-95.He scored 910 first class runs last season, earning an ACB contract inthe process, and then followed it with more than 1000 runs for Durham inEnglish county cricket.Queensland need a minimum of first innings points to ensure they hostthe Final, with Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia allvying for a berth in the decider.XXXX Queensland Bulls v Victorian Bushrangers, Wed-Sat, The Gabba:Brendan Nash, Daniel Payne, Martin Love (c), Clinton Perren, AndrewSymonds, Lee Carseldine, Wade Seccombe, Ashley Noffke, MichaelKasprowicz, Joe Dawes, Scott Brant, Matthew Anderson (12th man to benamed).Victorian Bushrangers: Matthew Elliott (c), Matthew Mott, Brad Hodge,Jon Moss, Nick Jewell, Cameron White, Darren Berry, Andrew MacDonald,Mathew Inness, Will Carr, Mick Lewis, Bryce McGain (12th man to benamed).