24/3/15
Dear Diary,
Arrange to meet Dad again today as he is still in town before he wanders away heading up the east coast looking for warmer weather again like the grey nomad he has become. It’s slightly cold in Melbourne today, I’m wearing a long sleeve t-shirt for the first time in about a month to keep the chill out but dad arrives in every jumper he own and complains about the cold weather bitterly. I warn him that he must never come to Scotland. We head to Federation square for a bit and join in the watching of the semi final between New Zealand and South Africa on the big screen with the ten other people braving the frigid conditions.
I have a good feeling about this game. like it’s going to be a good one. A close one. And that New Zealand will prevail, just, and make it to their first World Cup final.
By the time we join in the watching there are only a few over remaining of the first innings but South Africa have managed to racked up 281/5 from 43 overs (which subsequently gets rounded up to 298 by Duckworth/Lewis thanks to a rain delay).
Only 10 minutes for innings change over so, quick, find a cheap pub and get out of this infernal cold weather. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a cheap pub in Australia so we settle for a close one and sip expensive alcohol slowly.
The pub is busy but not packed and has a big screen where many people aim their faces towards. Some are into watching the game while some are casually checking it out now and again meanwhile the people at the back of the room have no interest in the game whatsoever. Theres a fair bit of background chatter but we can still hear the commentary. No one is really cheering for one side or the other at the beginning of the innings as we all keep up the social imperative of being respectful of other peoples experience.
McCullum gets the Kiwis off to another blistering start as usual, his 59 comes off 26 balls, and gets New Zealand ahead of the run rate early on. The crowd in the pub was silent when he started his onslaught but by the time it ended there were clear divisions as South Africans cheered and the Kiwi supporters groaned. There were more Kiwis than Saffas, but the Saffas were louder.
And from there on in everything continued to get louder. The cheers for boundaries grew louder, the cheers for wickets grew louder, the crowd grew in size and grew louder. The game remained evenly poised all the way through and at the halfway point New Zealand were 148/3 and bang on track to claim a berth in the final as long as they keep on pace and didn't lose wickets. Next over - Taylor out, New Zealand 151/4 and the crowd in the pub grows as the game tightens up..
there are some nervous people in the pub watching the game and it looks like both the teams on the field are nervous too. There are plenty of silly runs attempted and enough missed run outs to make a compilation and you get the feeling that the team that holds their nerve the most will force the other one to choke. And everyone in the pub is waiting for the choke to happen. It feels inevitable. Both these teams have a history of it and everything points to it happening again here today. Who will it be? What will be the decisive moment?
Is it De Villiers missed run out chance against Anderson? An easy chance with Anderson stranded mid pitch, a decent throw to the non strikers end and the usually excellent hands of De Villiers drops the ball, knocked off the bails in the process of regathering it and fails to excitute a simple run out that he had enough time to run out three batsmen.
Anderson and Elliot push on and both bring up half centuries. New Zealand's future looks assured until Anderson gets a huge top edge that goes straight up and is taken by the keeper. Long delay though as the 3rd umpire takes an age to see if it brushed the spidercam wire on the way down. If it did he’s not out due to the ball being dead, but eventually hes given out. Replays inconclusive. 252/5, 46 runs required from 30 balls. (Whats this tightening in my throat?)
Ronchi in, Ronchi out. N.Z. 275/6, 23 required from 12 balls. (cough.)
No need to worry though, in walks Dan Vettori, one of the greatest all rounder ever batting at number eight. He will see New Zealand Home (I seem to have been saying that a lot over the course of this tournament ...) there is genuine pressure here though and you can feel it in the pub as now all eyes are on the big screen. There is no other chat in the room besides what will happen next.
Desperate for runs New Zealand hack away. A top edge falls between three fielders. A catch that would have been taken is dropped as two fielders collide attempting the catch. The batsmen fail to run on it because they were ball watching. There is a lot of shouting in the pub. Both sets of fans are feeling the pinch. (cough, cough.)
Last over. 12 runs required for the win. For the first time in the match I start to get a bad feeling that my £1 investment in New Zealand to win the world cup is in jeopardy. Its a bad feeling. Two singles of the first two balls of the over is not enough. boundaries are needed. Steyn has a calf injury but there no way hes not going to finish this over.
10 needed of 4 balls.
Styne to Vettori. Legend to legend. Vettori squeezes out an attempted yorker to the third man boundary. 6 off 3. they run on a bye and the keeper fails to throw down the stumps for about the third time in the match. 5 to win off 2 balls and I feel like both teams are going to choke and end up with a tie. Which would actually be a fitting end to what has been an amazing game of. A tie will see New Zealand through to the final as they finished higher in the group stages than South Africa did.
Elliot has other ideas and claims the outright victory for New Zealand with a towering six over long off that sets the crowd alight with outrageous cheers and applause from all round the bar.
the atmosphere has been electric in the bar, almost like a mini stadium full of passionate fans, and the game has been on a knife edge all the way through. Although there were plenty of mistakes made by both teams during the game I wouldn't say that either of them choked. Both let the pressure get to them a points but in the end South Africa were just beaten by a slightly better team on the night.
In lots of ways this should have been the final but this result does allow the first part of my dream final for this World Cup to slot into place. Now all Australia have to do is overturn India on Thursday to set up an all home nation final.During the match I discovered that a lot of Australians were cheering for New Zealand in the hope of a Kiwi / Aussie final too so I’m not alone there. But I probably am the only Aussie that will be cheering for the Kiwis when/if Australia make it to the final. Gotta protect my investment.
Dad and I try to round out the night with a meal in Chinatown but I cannot get my bearings of which way is up in Melbourne so naturally we make a wrong turn. End up finding a Chinese restaurant somewhere else though and the impatient waiter makes the choices for our meal for us. Good choices they were too and it rounded off the night perfectly.
Next stop; semi final two in Sydney.
India V Australia.
"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard - (1864 - 1910)