London - The Cricket

OK, so we awoke to grey skies on Saturday morning, which was the day we were supposed to be going to the cricket at 'The Oval' to see a double header in the 20/20 World Cup. The first game was to be between New Zealand & Scotland, with the second game scheduled to be Australia v West Indies.

We were staying in a hotel very close to the groud (a lot closer than we realised) and decided to catch the Tube to the ground (which invloved changing trains) We later discovered where we hopped on the tube (Vauxhall) was only 500m walk to the oval. (There were people getting off the Tube obviously going to the game as we were getting on)

We alighted from the Tube at the Oval tube station, and stepped out into grey skies and rain. It was still pretty early in the morning, (9:30) and the first game was supposed to start at 10. Once inside however as a result of the rain the covers were on the pitch and the likelihood of play was very low. ( As seen in these pics)



However around midday the rain stopped, they started to peel off the covers, and by 12:30 it was declared that at at 1pm we would have some cricket. The first game, NZ v Scotland would be reduced to a 7 over contest. (How utterly ridiculous, WG Grace would be turning in his grave if he knew such a thing was going on) Scotland batted first and made a very respectable 89 runs from their 7 overs, but expectedly NZ, peeled off the runs with 1 over remaining.



The Aus v WI game started at 2:10 and was to be a full 20/20 and indeed they managed to get all of the overs in. Australia were 3/30 after about 5 overs and really struggling, Dave Warner made 59 and was by far the highlight of the innings, he smashed a massive six that went right out of the ground. Ricky Ponting was out for a duck, and didn't almost everyone in the ground love that.

I felt sorry for myself and all of the other Aussie who were there in the crowd because there were:-

a) West Indians
b) New Zealanders
c) Scots
d) Pommies


all baying for some Australian blood. Especially all of the Poms, who were depressed at the fact that their team had lost to Holland the night before. So every Australian wicket, and every West Indian six, was greeted with great excitement.

In a nutshell, Australia got smashed, and everyone enjoyed it.





There were a few strange things about being at the cricket here

1) It was freaking freezing. The weather never got above 16 degrees the whole day and got down to about 10. It felt like being at the footy in the middle of winter it was that cold. I have never worn anything more than shorts, a t-shirt and thongs to the cricket in my life.

2) Beer. It was served in pints and full strength (it was Fosters sadly)

3) Food. I had a curry for lunch, (which was great because the weather was f##king freezing)


I should be thankful that we got to see any cricket at all, although a different result would have been nice. When we left the ground we walked back to our hotel and were suprised to realise just how close we were actually staying to the ground. Indeed it was less than 10 mins walk away. It also showed how much time we wasted in the morning catching the tube there.