England v. Ireland test, day three, July 26th
I've never really been one for cricket. There may have been too much Boycott occupying the crease for England for my taste when I was a youngster, and the subtleties of his gifts were lost on me.
Wind forward many years and I, like many others I think, caught the last hour or so of the 2019 One Day World Cup between England and New Zealand on T.V. What a remarkable climax to a game packed with some astonishing twists and turns.
Registering an interest in cricket rather late in the day, well, the one day flavour at least, a chance invitation to join a friend at day three of the England v. Ireland test match at Lords offered a timely opportunity to explore the game further with my first ever visit to a live professional game of cricket.
As you will know if you follow the game, Ireland were set to start the day from a position of strength, needing just 182 runs from their yet to come second innings if they could snatch the last English wicket at no cost. England were hoping for something more, and the rump that remained of their second innings were targeting at least twenty to thirty more runs to set Ireland a target in excess of 200 before they could claim a historic win from just their third test match ever.
We arrived at around 10:45 with fifteen minutes to spare, clutching cups of hot black coffee bought from one of the many food and drink outlets at the ground. With what looked just shy of a maximum crowd of 28,000 people we took our seats beneath an overcast sky accompanied by a slight drizzle with floodlights blazing. People who seemed to know what they were talking about said this would favour the bowlers.
So it turned out.
I wondered if rain might delay the start. What do I know? At about 11:00 England’s last two batsmen stepped from the pavilion and took their positions, doing what batsmen usually do before facing a bowler by playing a few imaginary balls in slow motion, with great conviction. It was all very comforting.
11:10. Here we go.
One ball. One wicket. A sharp and resounding crack as stumps flew and England were gone, second innings over. With bats tucked reluctantly under their arms the two batsmen began the awkward and unwelcome trudge back to where they had come from just ten minutes earlier. The Irish punched the air, celebrating a tidy and economical piece of work as they too left the field. The ground hummed as the crowd took stock.
Is test cricket always like this?
The pitch was vacated. The drizzle continued. The light remained poor, and still dependant on floodlights. After about 15 minutes the Irish batsmen emerged from the pavilion and strode onto the pitch, taking their positions. As they performed that slow-motion imaginary batting thing the English bowler and fielders set themselves up.
It was about 11:45 and the first over was a maiden. Three balls into the second, with the drizzle becoming heavier and still not an Irish run on the board, rain stopped play. The pitch was hurriedly vacated again as groundsmen appeared dragging out and positioning covers. A man in wellies seemed to be in charge, cutting a curious figure on a cricket pitch, I thought. An hour later at around 12:45 play was set to resume. Before doing so an announcement informed us that due to the earlier unscheduled break in play lunch would be delayed an hour from the usual 01:00 until 2:00.
As it turned out they needn't have bothered. Three minutes before the delayed lunch the last Irish wicket fell.
To summarise the three days, and the game:- England were bowled out for 85 in a single session- Ireland scored 207 to lead by 121 runs- England reached 177 for 1 and then collapsed to leave the Irish needing 182 runs to win- Ireland were bowled out for 38 runs in just over an hour leaving England a 143 run victory Blimey. Think I'll come again.
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