Twenty20 - Auckland

When Michael Clarke took a step back and swung violently at a ball that passed outside off stump, I knew this would not be, visually, a match played with caution. In many regards it wasn’t the most technique specific game but for entertainment the first Twenty20 match between two test playing nations, played at Eden Park in Auckland was up there with the best of them. Sporting the 80’s look, with body hugging beige, lamb chop sideburns with tasch’s to match, and flannel floppies, the kiwi side looked more the retro part than Australia in their ‘budgerigar yellow’ (as the media like to call it here), the game was a testing event for the game we know and love, and for public acclaim it was indeed a winner.

When Michael Clarke took a step back and swung violently at a ball that passed outside off stump, I knew this would not be, visually, a match played with caution. In many regards it wasn’t the most technique specific game but for entertainment the first Twenty20 match between two test playing nations, played at Eden Park in Auckland was up there with the best of them. Sporting the 80’s look, with body hugging beige, lamb chop sideburns with tasch’s to match, and flannel floppies, the kiwi side looked more the retro part than Australia in their ‘budgerigar yellow’ (as the media like to call it here), the game was a testing event for the game we know and love, and for public acclaim it was indeed a winner.

It was a bad toss to win. Neither Stephen Fleming nor Ricky Ponting new what to do, or indeed how to play the shortest version of the game, though Australia had more players with experience through regular matches in the UK, so like many games, winning the toss and batting was the way forward. Punter did just that. And for a game that only lasts 40-overs max and 2.5hrs, it surprised me that half the ground was empty by the time the game started. The crowd swelled to 29,317, almost capacity, though you really do have to question the concentration span of some sports fans that they can’t even sit through 2.5hrs of a match!

Swinging and missing, swinging and hitting, swinging and swinging harder was the approach by Australia’s top 4 batsmen that were in the shed with only 54 runs on the board, and it might have seemed Australia’s innings wouldn’t last 20-overs. When Ricky Ponting played his first ball delicately to mid on for a single, the crowd booed. With a couple of wild hoiks that brought about the first two wickets, the crowd didn’t wish to see technique, style, charisma, or caution. They wanted the ball sent to the rafters, out of the park, or at best, cannoning into the stumps, not deft singles, or cries of no! This is Twenty20 a wild, no holds barred run fest, a dynamic evolution of the crusty game that goes 100-overs.

At 4-54 in the 6th, to suggest Australia would be 5-wickets down at the end was un-New Zealand! With 14overs remaining, the loss of only one more wicket in the longer version of the short game wasn’t so absurd, but this was 20/20 action, thrills, spills, and batting kills. Not enough wickets for the crowd, but they did get their big hits… at a cost. Ponting decided that pushing singles was not the way forward, and though not playing for the crowd, he sent the ball into the crowd 5times, including one straight to yours truly (alas the ball dropped short by 1m and bounced off the awning above the players shed, and I missed a $500 prize) as he murdered the bowling to the tune of 98 blissful runs, taking Australia to a whopping 5-214. Simon Katich piped in for 30, and Michael Hussey a splendid 31 not out which, in the process, left Punter stranded on 98, as he sent the 2nd last ball to the crowd, and thus faced the final delivery.

15-mins change over and it was New Zealand’s time to take to the attack needing 10.5runs per over. Impossible by the 50-over standards but this was Twenty20 action on a rugby field, with short boundaries everywhere, and long boundaries hard to police. Taking the score to 49 before the first wicket fell had the crowd excited for kiwi demolition, but when the 2nd wicket fell one ball later, then the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th with the score on 105, not even the reverberating 80’s disco tunes could solicit enough rhythm to keep NZ into the game. Craig McMillan, and Scott Styris did their utmost to smack the cover off the ball, but it to no avail as the Kiwis fell short by 44-runs, though a suggested underarm ball by McGrath on the last ball of the day added more humour to the otherwise credible loss to the New Zealand and the pointless win by Australia.

Billy Bowden showed Pigeon the red card as he stopped on the crease before letting the ball go, amid raucous cheers. The hairstyles, the moustaches, and the nostalgic music throughout the game were all part of the trial of Twenty20, a game that is yet to be taken seriously, and for what I saw tonight, I hope it doesn’t ever. Maybe I’m just getting too old and slow for this quick stuff! Without the undercoat of sunshine and lager before the lights turn on and the game heads to a climax, the crowd that turned up for more than 20-overs remained a bit more focused and less distracting than at an ODI, but that might just have been the interest in seeing a new format. We like to see new things, and though this format is new, we can be reassured that above all else it still is cricket; and it’s still 22-yards stump to stump… thankfully!

Luke Gillian 20/02/2005 22:48:15