Cricket!!

Only 15 minutes from our home, and in view of the Port Hills in which we live, is a major cricket/rugby stadium. I’ve heard that it was once a small stadium, but over the years it has been added onto and is currently being enlarged once again in preparation for the World Rugby Cup in 2011. There are some of the same debates that are bantered about in the States about how you can’t have a good football/baseball stadium. And so it goes here. What’s most remarkable about the current construction phase is that games (tests, matches, whatever they’re called) are still played even with oodles of construction equipment looming about on one side of the field.


The India National cricket team is in the country right now and they happened to have a match against the New Zealand National team, the BLACKCAPS. We decided it was a great time to immerse ourselves in a game, especially since it was an ODI (One Day International – which means it takes “only” about 8 hours to complete, rather than some matches which can last up to three days).

When we arrived at the stadium, our first pleasant surprise was that today was The National Bank giveaway day. Oh boy! Our booty included several bags, hats, sweat bands, UV indicator wrist bands, activity books, ice blocks (popsicles), and sunscreen. As we took our seats in the 4th row we were pleased to see just how close to the action we’d be. This distance from us to the nearest players was only about 10 meters. One fellow was even signing autographs between overs. It was a sunny, warm day that was just perfect for catching a cricket match. India batted first and scored an amazing number of runs, much to the disappointment of the local crowd. The number of runs was so high, that an unheard of 105 were scored off of just one bowler (think pitcher). One of India’s superstar players racked up 162 runs all by himself and finally had to retire from batting because he’d been in the striker position for almost 4 hours! Alas, after 50 overs (and 3 hours 55 minutes of play) NZ found themselves chasing 392/4.

There was a break between India’s turn at bat and New Zealand’s, so we left temporarily to stretch our legs and get something to eat other than stadium food. We came back and watched 28 overs batted by NZ, but things were not looking good. It was 190/4 with only 22 overs to go. We’ll have to read in the paper if they were able to comeback .

We spent a good deal of the time at the match comparing cricket to major league baseball. Differences in throwing and batting styles, for instance, we contemplated. One big difference we noticed involved the ball. It’s common in MLB for a ball to be removed from play if it has received too many scuffs, or it’s kept by a fan, or lost over one of the fences. But in cricket, the rule is that the same ball will be used for the entire match – it’s just one of the many factors to take into consideration when playing the game. We did think that the rule would hinder cricket from ever becoming widely watched in the States because the TV networks would want play to continue and not be held up by searching for a ball. In fact, at several points in the match, play would come to a halt while players and stadium staff searched the construction site looking through construction rubble and debris. It was really sort of amusing to see one of the players finally emerge from behind barricades with a ball held high to show he’d found it. We did learn that if a ball is truly lost, it is not replaced by a new ball per se. An official will motion to the dugout (for lack of better word), and a gentleman carrying a small metal suitcase will appear. Inside are balls with a range of different amounts of play time. They pick the one that most closely matches the lost ball, and play can continue.

Mark just checked the internet for the final score: India beat New Zealand by 58 runs, 392 to 334. And New Zealand lost all 10 wickets.