Der Blog

Went to my first ever cricket match yesterday - Hampshire versus Lancashire at the Rose Bowl, about half of the match under floodlights. Hampshire bowled Lancashire out for 243 with one and a half overs left (and about as many minutes). Having scored 251-5 in their innings (Lancashire having made them bat first) this was a very close match. Warne and Peterson could have made it less close but they are obviously busy with the Ashes at the moment.

The 3rd umpire had a lot of work, being called out at least six times. One very unusual wicket was Lamb's: his partner (Watson I think) hit the ball into the bowler, which rebounded into the stumps. Lamb was out of his crease, and since the ball touched a fielder before reaching the stumps, he was technically run out. A very unusual and unlucky way to get out. Another run out had Chilton (I think) run about 3/4 the way to the other crease and turn back, obviously too late. Man of the match was probably Watson with 106 not out off 105 balls.

Watching cricket live is quite different from watching on TV. For one thing, watching the pitch side on makes it impossible to see the line of the ball, and even the length is hard to judge sometimes. It's rather hard to see the ball at all at that distance and the speeds it travels at. You just can't see whether a wicket was due to the batsman's mistake, deceptive swing or spin, or whatever.

Another thing that startled me was how quickly they get on with the match. Test matches are quite sedate affairs - since they have so much time they don't have to hurry up and bowl. One day county cricket is much more hasty as there is a time limit. You have to bowl 44.1 overs in 2 hours 50 minutes, or risk 6 penalty runs for each over you overran by. They really don't muck about. I timed the balls at about 30-40 seconds each plus 35 seconds between overs.