Lucky me, Simon managed to get tickets to the cricket match yesterday. Australia haven’t played a test here for years so tickets were in hot demand.
Our drubbing in the twenty over games made me a little nervous, but day one on Thursday hadn’t gone too badly for us so I was looking forward to going. I’d unfortunately agreed to cover a private list in the morning, not realising I’d double booked myself. Simon couldn’t believe I’d done it, he’s a big believer in the family shared calendar on Google but for some reason I never think to check it. I figured I wouldn’t miss much anyway as the first ball isn’t bowled until eleven.
Once my list was finished and I’d eaten lunch, I checked online and found to my dismay Australia were still batting. In fact they hadn’t lost a single wicket and were in the midst of a record breaking last wicket stand. I wasn’t too upset to then be in the midst of trying to get an emergency appointment at our vet for a second opinion for my daughter’s little cavoodle puppy Georgie who has a dislocating patella. In fact I had time for a wee nap before they phoned us to bring the young man around.
By the time we returned home, it was mid afternoon, NZ were finally batting but Oh Dear we were 29 for 5. Catastrophe. I was tempted to hop in the car and head away for the weekend, but it was such a lovely day that I decided to head down to the ground in spite of the dire outlook for the Blackcaps.
And I’m glad I went. My arrival coincided with somewhat of a resurgence for the batting team, with the two batsmen both in fine form, flourishing with the bat, producing a flurry of 4s and 6s to keep the crowd entertained.
Many of the spectators had been at the ground all day, with much beer being consumed, and it showed. There were a group of raucous young men behind us who were considerably the worse for wear, who were loudly sledging the fielding team. Steve Smith was getting most of the abuse, all related to the ball tampering incident several years ago. The comments were occasionally witty but got a trifle repetitive. It was a little embarrassing I must say, but it kept the small children who walked past entertained anyway. Heartening to think that young men behaving badly must be a rare sight for the children of today, so astonished were they.
Shortly after I arrived, a friend of one of our group came to visit him for a catch up. I had never seen the man before but apparently he is famous, a psychologist and a judge on the popular reality show ‘Married at first sight’. In fact soon after he came and sat with us a young woman came over to meet him “Excuse me, but do I know you from the TV?” This is not the sort of thing I see normally so I snuck a photo.
I thought approaching famous people was not a kiwi thing to do but maybe times change? Any way she was from Palmerston North – I couldn’t help but overhear most of their conversation – so maybe she was starved for entertainment. Eventually the man had to go – he is big buds with the Blackcaps, having played first class cricket in the past, and he had to get back to where the important people were, up in the stands. He did say, as the young woman was leaving, that she should keep an eye on X, a character in the current season, because he was going to get much worse. That could have been juicy gossip if I could have remembered the man’s name. In the meantime, NZ began losing wickets again and soon Australia were back batting.
Lo and behold, very early on in the innings, Steve Smith was out. It was pretty clear to me that the sledging from the crowd had taken its toll. One of our group actually went up to the bunch of loud young men behind us to congratulate them on the success of their tactics, but came back shaking his head. The youths were clearly absolutely plastered. I’m not sure who was keeping them supplied with beer in the hot sun, but if they aren’t sunburnt, hungover and feeling very sorry for themselves today I’d be very surprised. I’m grateful at least that I didn’t get vomitted on.