I Don’t Like Cricket

I LOVE IT!

I have the t-shirt!

Cricket season is upon us, and we’ve been heading down to Wellington’s premier cricket ground, the Basin Reserve, on a regular basis. First up was the test series against Sri Lanka, where we went to Day Two on a Sunday, and watched the Black Caps start amassing what seemed like an unassailable total against the Sri Lankans, who had ended the day before at 275 for 8. It didn’t take long for New Zealand’s bowlers to pick up the last two wickets, and they ended on 282 after 3 more overs.

Then the Black Caps started batting. Unlike in some recent matches, the openers managed a reasonable stand before Raval was out for 43. Then in came Kane Williamson, and along with Tom Latham, put on an impressive stand for the second wicket – Williamson falling short of his century at 91, and kicking himself all the way back to the pavilion. Latham batted on, and at the end of the day, New Zealand were ahead. On day 3, he carried on, eventually carrying his bat for 264 and putting the Black Caps in a commanding position. Unfortunately the weather had the final say in this match, and it was drawn after very little play on day 5. Still, an impressive knock by Latham, the sixth highest in New Zealand history, and it set them up well for the second test, which they won emphatically by 423 runs.

Next up, the T20 series. We have so far been to see the Wellington Firebirds and the Wellington Blaze play two double-header matches – the women’s match starts at 12:45, and the men’s at 16:00; on the first occasion, against Otago’s Sparks and Volts. The Sparks pretty comprehensively outplayed the Blaze, particularly in the field, and as the overs dwindled, the run rate got away from them and they ended up losing by 20 runs. The men’s match was more closely fought, and with a target of 168, they needed 18 off the last two overs – eminently achievable in a T20 competition. The Volts were having none of it, however, and with some tight bowling, excellent fielding cutting off the boundaries, and three wickets falling, won by one run.

Last weekend was not just another double-header – it was free! Sponsored by Wellington City Council (so paid for by our rates, really), this time it was against the two teams from Canterbury – the Magicians and Kings. The women were set a similar target (150) to the previous week, but this time out seemed to have the better of it. They stayed on top of the run rate and achieved the total with two balls to spare. They’re currently sitting at the top of the table, although they have played one more match than most of the other teams, so we need to wait and see.

In the men's game, The Firebirds were put in to bat first. With a display of hitting from Conway, including seven sixes, they set a daunting total of 199 for the Kings. They came out fighting, and dropped two early wickets in the second over to Bennett. A bowling change in the fifth over yielded similar results, with two wickets to Sears, and Van Beek picking up the fifth at the beginning of the sixth over, and suddenly they were 40/5. Their captain, McConchie, batted on bravely, eventually amassing 83, but he kept losing partners, and the run rate got away from them. Eventually they were bowled out in the 19^th over, for 135 – well short of the requirement. A convincing win for the Firebirds, putting them second on the table.

There aren’t any more double-header matches, but the men’s competition continues this Saturday, so we’ll probably go to that, weather permitting, and then in February there’s a T20 and an ODI against India, both at the Stadium. Woohoo!

Firebirds Burn

We made an early start back to Wellington on Tuesday morning as we wanted to get home and then get back out again to go to the basin reserve, there to see the Wellington Firebirds take on the Central Stags in a a game of Twenty20 cricket. It was a lovely day for it, with sun shining and only a few clouds in the sky, but noticeably cooler than in Wairarapa the previous day (where I later found out temperatures had reached 32˚C).

One of the highlights of the game was watching Muttiah Murilatharan, who has joined the Firebirds as their overseas player this season. He duly went on to take 3 for 18, and the Firebirds bowled out the opposition for 155 in the final over, setting an eminently achievable target of 156 to win. Unfortunately they’d lost wicket keeper and batsman Gerry Ryder in the second over of the match, so their batting order was under pressure from the start; and with an entirely preventable run-out, had soon fallen to 49 for 4. Now, run-outs are nearly always foolish, but to make the distance but not have your bat grounded seems like a big mistake to me.

As the bowling ground on, the required run rate stretched further away from them – 8 an over, 10 an over, 12 an over, and with wickets falling regularly they were bowled out with the final ball, 25 runs shy of the target. This is, regrettably, to be expected of the Firebirds, who aren’t the greatest team, and don’t seem to be able to make the big overs needed to get ahead of the run rate. Whilst some of their batsmen did seem to get stuck into the bowling, too often the ball seemed to go straight to the fielders, so what looked like a good strike of the ball ended up with one run added to the total.

They’re playing another home game today, against unbeaten-so-far (and last year’s winners) Auckland Aces. I don’t fancy their chances much.

Four-Day Match

We've been a bit boring recently, due to ill weather and illness, so haven't been out much...but on Sunday, we were all set for a day out.

Wellington Firebirds, our local cricket team, have been involved in a monumental tussle with Auckland Aces in a four-day match at the Basin Reserve. After three days, the Aces were on 238/7, and the fourth day looked like it would be a cracker.

We headed down to the Basin Reserve in time to catch the last hour of the morning session. Auckland reached 277 in 13 overs in the morning before declaring, setting Wellington a target of 276 with 77 overs to score them in. When we arrived they’d already dropped a wicket and were drifting along at 17/1.

As we approached the ground, there didn’t seem to be much activity. As you walk along Cambridge Terrace you can see the scoreboard from outside the ground, but we couldn’t see anyone on the bank, which is usually crowded with people. When we got to the gate, there was no-one there to sell us a ticket. It appears that entrance to four-day games is completely free. Despite this, very few had actually turned up. We’d been expecting the same deal as when we’d gone to the Twenty20 series at the end of last year, and in January when I’d headed down to watch the penultimate day of the second test.

Of course, one of the downsides to this is that none of the concessions were open, and when the teams marched off to lunch, there was no Hell On Wheels for us to do likewise. So we left the ground and retraced our steps along Kent Terrace, to have lunch at the Capitol Restaurant. As we were on our way there, we spotted Strawberry Fare, a place which had been recommended to us by various people…so we resolved to visit it on our way back to the ground. Strawberry Fare is noted for its puddings – whilst they do have main courses on offer, most folk give those a miss and head straight for the desserts. We did likewise, and very good they were too! After an enjoyable lunch we headed back to the ground, to find Wellington had dropped another wicket, and weren’t really keeping up with the RRR.

Silly fielding positions

Gloom and despondency set in, despite the warm sunshine and almost cloudless sky. However, the new batsman was Neal Parlane, a stalwart of the Wellington batting, and he soon played himself in. He made a fifty stand with the opener Brodie, then lost his next partner fairly quickly. But then he was joined by Joe Smellie and, with the help of a couple of big overs along the way, they managed to stay on top of the run rate, and they batted out the innings; making a century whilst Smellie made a fifty, with a couple of overs to spare.

View from the grassy bank

We pondered on the economics of this. All the players were being paid to be there, as were the ground staff. There were, perhaps, a total of fifty spectators. We kept thinking that new people were turning up, until we realised that they were using the cricket ground as a shortcut between two streets. We’d turned up fully expecting to pay admittance – the usual exorbitant fee of $15! How does this work? Who benefits? Answers, as usual, in the comments, please!

Twelve12

It had been a grey, drizzly day all day, so when we turned up at the Basin Reserve for the 5 o’clock match against Auckland Aces, our first question was whether there was going to be any play at all. We were told that the umpires had been out once to inspect the pitch already, and were due back out at 5:20. So we went up into the stands out of the continuing drizzle, and waited.

By 5:20, there were around a dozen people standing around in the middle of the pitch, discussing the weather and the state of the field. The sky was showing a slight sign of brightening, and eventually an announcement was made: there would be play, but it would be delayed until 6:20, and the match would be duly shortened to twelve overs an innings. Presumably they’d received some information from the Wellington weather service, as although it seemed to have stopped drizzling, there wasn’t anything to indicate it wouldn’t start again at a moment’s notice.

By 6:20 we’d had another announcement that play would now start at 6:40. It had brightened up a bit, and the commentator assured us over the PA that a patch of blue could be seen!

The covers come off

Auckland won the toss and decided to bat. They set off in frenetic style, scoring at 11 runs an over and by the end of the eighth had reached 89. Then Wellington had a purple patch of bowling, and in the next two overs took 3 wickets for the loss of only 4 runs. It looked like they might restrict Auckland to a reasonable total, but it wasn’t to be. They put their skates on again and knocked out a score of 125.

Wellington started in their usual style – slowly; they took 4 runs off the first over. This set them at a disadvantage from the start, as they were now trying to chase down 11 runs an over. Despite this, they picked up the speed and started scoring at a rate of around 8 runs – good, but not good enough, and that RRR was getting away from them. Then they hit a series of good overs in the middle of the innings, taking 13, 16 and 14 in overs 6 to 8. This put them back on top of the required rate, and they chugged along to the end. By the penultimate over they needed 17, and with the help of a big 6 and some good running between the wickets, reduced this down to a run a ball with 8 deliveries remaining. A quick single, and they needed 7 from 7. The final delivery of the over, and the ball is lofted into the air…and straight to the fielder. Fifth wicket down, and no run.

So, 7 needed from the final over – eminently gettable in a game of Twenty20, or even Twelve12. But it was half past eight, and in the last few overs the weather had worsened again – it was drizzling, and the light was murkier than a murky thing being murky. The batsman played, and missed; played, and missed; played, and missed; then managed to connect, and Wellington took two singles.

Note the low cloud, lights in tunnel, car headlights - it was a lot darker than it looks

Final ball, and Wellington still needed 5 to win! There’s only one way to hit a six, and as the ball rolled along the outfield we knew that they hadn’t done it. They managed to run 2, but that clearly wasn’t good enough and they ended losing by 2 runs.

Undoubtedly the conditions helped Auckland to victory – seeing the ball in the final overs must have been difficult. Nevertheless, we left with a feeling that Wellington had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. This drops them down to 5^th in the table, with only the unfortunate Otago Volts beneath them, who have yet to win a game. It will take an almighty struggle to get back into contention, and 4 of their remaining 5 games now have to be played away from home, so we’re not sanguine about their hopes of reaching the finals. But cricket’s a funny old game, and Twenty20 even more so; we’ll keep an eye on their results, and see what happens.

MenInPink

Back down to the Basin Reserve again this afternoon for another instalment of the HRV Cup Twenty20 competition. Last weekend, Wellington had won one and lost one match; on Thursday they played away against Central Stags in Nelson, winning by eight wickets, after being set a low-ish score of 128 to chase. So far, so good, and they were riding high near the top of the table.

Today’s match was against the Northern Knights, who play in pink. They had dropped their first match, but won the next two, so were level pegging with Wellington before play began.

Northern Knights in their pink kit

The Knights got off to a blistering start, powering to 50/1 after 5 overs. In the 6^th over, Wellington took 2 wickets for only 3 runs, and in the next few overs it looked like they were regaining control. Unfortunately this wasn’t to last, and the Knights soon picked up the scoring rate again; despite the loss of further wickets, they managed to finish on 201/6 – a run rate of more than 10 an over.

This was never an easy ask for Wellington; they scored slowly to begin with, dropping an early wicket. Despite an inspiring attempt in the 6^th over when they hit 19 runs, they never got on top of the required run rate, and lost wickets steadily throughout the innings. By the time of the last 6 overs, the RRR had risen to 15 an over, and was looking impossibly out of reach. The last wicket fell with a ball remaining, and a score of 147.

Wellington are now languishing in 4^th place in the table. Their next game is against Auckland, at 5pm on Tuesday, which we hope to be able to make. After that they have a string of away games before returning for their penultimate match at the Basin Reserve. Unfortunately we will be away in the Bay of Islands, so we’ll miss that one. If they make the top two of the league, the final will be played on 2^nd January.

I have a theory, called “the Boy Named Sue Theory”. You will recall the song, A Boy Named Sue, by Johnny Cash? You can see where I’m going with this – I reckon because the Northern Knights have to wear pink pyjamas, they’re used to being picked on by the other cricket teams with their “sensible” team colours. This has made them stronger and better. Thanks to that high score, they’re currently top of the table. Go figure.

Cricket Again

In a move totally unanticipated by the New Zealand weather forecasting community, Sunday dawned cooller, cloudy and blustery – a clear contrast from the day before. By the time we set out for the Basin Reserve, however, the sun was beginning to break through the clouds. We weren’t in quite the same t-shirt – and – shorts order we’d been in for the Otago match, though.

A different day, and a very different match. Canterbury elected to bowl first, and Wellington struggled to make much impression in the first half, reaching 55/2 after 10 overs. Indeed, as the innings came to a close they’d only reached 107 with 3 overs remaining. At this point they decided to let rip and scored 11, 16 and 14 off the final 3 overs to finish on 148, so at least they’d posted a reasonably respectable target to beat.

Pollard scrambles to make his ground

At first, it looked like it would all be finished in a handful of overs, as Canterbury charged to 61/1 after 6 overs – a scoring rate of over 10 an over. But over the next 10 overs, Wellington pinned them back, and boundaries were few and far between. Meanwhile, they picked away at their wickets, so by the final 4 overs, Canterbury needed 34 off 24 balls. They kept trailing the required run rate until the penultimate over, when they hit a 6 and a 4, leaving them needing just 5 off the final over – the same situation Wellington had been in yesterday. Needless to say, 5 runs in an over is not a big ask in Twenty20, and they achieved it with 2 balls remaining.

Celebrating as another Canterbury wicket falls

Wellington are playing away in Nelson midweek, then back home next Sunday. Look out for the next exciting match report then!

In other news, England are 551/4 in Adelaide, where it’s now raining. This seems like a totally unfair tactic by Australia, who can normally be relied on to produce hot, dry weather for the Test series. Hopefully it’ll dry up overnight so that England can try to get everyone’s hopes up by scoring a win over Australia.

Twenty 20

A while ago, we bought tickets to see all of Wellington’s home games in the HRV Cup, the Twenty20 cricket tournament here in New Zealand, from one of the discount websites that I use. The tournament kicked off on Thursday, but Wellington’s first match was on Saturday. The competition is between 6 teams playing each other team twice – one home and one away – with a final between the top two teams (duh! who else?) at the beginning of January. We’ll miss Wellington’s final home match as we’ll be up in the Bay of Islands for Christmas, but we will be able to see all the others.

The weather has taken a distinctly summery turn over the last week, so we donned summer clothing, did a spot of slip-slop-slap, and at around 1 o’clock we headed down to the Basin Reserve, Wellington’s cricket ground – about a 20 minute walk from our flat, so a pleasant stroll in the sunshine. We found seats outside on the benches, with a good side-on view of the wicket for our budding sports-photography careers! That's Mount Victoria in the background.

The Basin Reserve

There were a number of people handing out free stuff from the sponsors, HRV, as well as Wellington’s team sponsor, Hell. They make pizzas; we haven’t tried one yet, but now we have a discount voucher…next time we’re in the mood for pizza, we’ll give them a try. They had a mobile pizza wagon at the ground, called "Hell On Wheels". 

We picked up a pair of free sunhats, and also the obligatory 4/6 placard to wave whenever anyone hit a boundary:

So, at 2pm, the game was on, between Hell Wellington Firebirds and Otago Volts. Honestly, who comes up with these names? Wellington won the toss and put Otago in to bat. The game was fast and furious, as anyone who’s seen a Twenty20 match will attest, and despite losing a wicket in the first over, Otago went on to post a respectable total of 153. Their hero was former international Aaron Redmond, scoring 82 off 54 balls, including one six hit out of the ground and down Adelaide Road. So now the chase was on, and Wellington…lost a wicket without scoring a run. After that they perked up, rallied round, uttered some more clichés and stayed ahead of, and even exceeded the required run rate without dropping too many wickets; until the 15^th over when disaster struck, and they lost three wickets in two overs – but more importantly, only picked up 6 runs in those two overs. With all the work to do, they managed to get back on top of the scoring rate, and in the final over needed 5 runs. Not too difficult, and with a 2 and a 4 they eventually won by 3 wickets with 2 balls remaining.

Action shot

Wellington are off to a good start, and we’ll be back down to the Basin Reserve tomorrow to watch their next game against the Canterbury Wizards. This is their first match, so hopefully Wellington will be able to use today’s experience to full effect. Anyway, it’s a wonderful way to spend three hours on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon, and Speight’s have the beer franchise inside the ground. What’s not to like?