Seams Like Fun

Here's the latest from my summer sporting interlude. The Cricket World Cup is here, and it would be rude not to ... these are the first two of my three trips down the M4 corridor of uncertainty.

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Friday 7 June 2019 at the County Ground, Bristol
Result	Pakistan v Sri Lanka.  No Result. Match abandoned due to weather without a ball being bowled.
Competition	Cricket World Cup 2019
Hopstats	The 10th venue on my cricket-watching list.
Context
Early days in the group stage of the tournament.
In one sentence
Frustration for everyone.
So what?
One point each. So something must have happened, and I was there. Tick. Controversial.
Pix

... and so, wait a week or so and hope for better weather ...

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 15 June 2019 at the Cardiff Wales Stadium
Result	South Africa beat Afghanistan by 9 wickets (Duckworth-Lewis Method)
Competition	Cricket World Cup 2019
Hopstats	The 11th venue on my cricket-watching list.
Context
At the time of ticket purchase, this would not have been expected to be a 9th v 10th game in the group stage.  It is a must-win match for the underperformers of South Africa if they are to retain a notional chance of progression to the semi-finals.
In one sentence
South Africa won the toss, made the correct call to bowl first as part of managing the weather conditions, and did what they had to do with the bat once Afghanistan had collapsed to a low total without using their overs and time.
So what?
It is still unlikely that South Africa will qualify, but they would need to get some good wins against New Zealand and Australia particularly as teams already ahead. They also play Pakistan and Sri Lanka. On today’s performance, Afghanistan will go home with more experience, but that’s all.
Match Report
The Afghanistan openers Hazrat and Noor Ali Zadran did OK against Rabara and Hendricks with the new ball, and they got to 56-1 off 15 overs.  Then Phehlukwayo and Morris put the brakes on as the power play ended and the field could be set to reduce the chances of boundaries.  Afghanistan then collapsed from 69-2, having had two breaks for rain, after 20 to 77-6 after 25 as Imran Tahir took two wickets in his first over and Morris and Phehlukwayo did their bit in cleaning up the tail.  The rain breaks had helped South Africa much more than Afghanistan.  A total of 125 would never be defensible, but even more crucial was that they put back over 15 overs worth of time back into the day.  It would have been worse but for an entertaining cameo of 35 by Rashid Khan who messed up Tahir’s bowling figures temporarily before the bowler got him.  Tahir had 4-49, Morris 3-13 and Phehlukwayo 2-18 which tells the story. The game had by now been reduced to a 48-over contest. As I eventually drove away from Cardiff later, towards the most magnificent rainbow I have ever seen in my life and leaving apocalyptic clouds over Elton John at one of this city’s other stadia, the rain came in again. To be fair, South Africa were always ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis target, scoring at six an over, but the nearest we came to a Rocketman was Phehlukwayo’s winning shot, the first and only six of the day.  He had been promoted to number three after Amla and de Kock had respectfully seen off the new ball and gone on to a hundred partnership.  They looked set for a ten-wicket win before de Kock was caught for 68.  Amla was determined to remain at the crease, and he was 41 not out at the end. I had a go at keeping a ball-by-ball record. It takes some practice, and is quite hard when there is not another person to look out for signals and such like.  Like Marmite, you'll either think this is really interesting or something to be avoided at all costs, especially if you are next to the group of beery men in banana costume. It has to be said that I appear to be headed for another one-sided contest on Monday, and so far my personal experience of this tournament has been disappointing from a sporting point of view, and certainly not value for money when I take into account travel, parking and food costs on top of the ticket prices.  I’ve liked the quirkiness of the grounds, the enthusiasm of the tournament volunteers (“Cricketeers”), the passion of the overseas supporters for the game, the family atmosphere, and I suppose the group stage programme is not bad at £10.  The merchandise and stadium food, as ever, is overpriced but with a better range of choice than some football events that I have attended. The shuttle bus services have been OK but with an element of chaos in the organisation. The driver at Bristol took the wrong route and the one at Cardiff did some damage to an adjacent tree as we arrived. Regular blog readers will recall that I saw two high-quality contests in Chennai last year for next to nothing and I will look back on those games more fondly.
Pix
Learn Welsh through cricket, lesson 1. I assume that this is what happens if you do a joint degree in Physical Education and Marketing Rahmat Shah hanging on in there. SA's Quinton de Kock kept on his toes Hashim Amla pushes another single The nation's media searching out fans who are sleeping or otherwise worthy of ten seconds of exposure on the big screen. The resident gulls are a bit of a nuisance to be perfectly honest. Hold on tightly to your overpriced chips.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! I’m off to Taunton tomorrow for West Indies v Bangladesh, and then with three more group stage games to come before the end of the month.