A day at the basin
The biggest day in my cricket season, day two of the 3rd test, the day I spent at the Basin Reserve watching live cricket, and it was arse! The Black Caps played meekly and failed meekly. They were dismissed for 197, crawling along at 3 runs an over. Worst day’s cricket all season.
It is hard work spending a day on the bank at the Basin on a typical Wellington day. The incessant wind evaporates your strength. The sun won’t stay out from behind the clouds for long enough to keep you warm, but is bright enough to give you a headache from the glare. Your legs and buttocks ache from stopping you slipping down onto the people sitting below.
But when the game is on in town, where would you be but at the ground? To hear the ball hit the bat, to see the game unfold, to watch in person the players you’ve been following since the first game of the tour.
Here are the Black Caps arriving, looking confident with just one wicket to take:
Then once they started batting, they initially showed the required application:
While we enjoyed the atmosphere of the bank and the appropriate culinary delights:
But then the Indian bowlers started to exert themselves. Not this chap so much:
Though he did give us a few demonstrations of the poise that makes him such an exciting prospect:
Instead it was the guy at the other end, Zaheer Khan with 5/65 (click on the photo and wait a bit):
Then the fans started to flock to their heros:
And cheered them on from the crowd:
By the time they returned to the field for the third session, the writing was on the wall, and it read 140/7:
Another day of drama witnessed (largely) from the bank at the Basin Reserve under Mt Victoria:
April 6th, 2009 at 7:55 am
if it’s any small consolation, at least you had the camera. zaheer pic, as his spell, special.
April 6th, 2009 at 7:57 am
but ishant’s ‘symmetry’ is top notch
April 6th, 2009 at 8:25 am
What about the spell in the Old stand?
April 6th, 2009 at 9:10 am
What about the spell in the Old stand?
Hey Leg Break, it was great to finally get the chance to meet up. If I didn’t mention spending the tea interval in the old stand in my post, it was only because it didn’t quite fit in my story of spending the day (largely) on the bank.
I spotted you guys heading up onto the bank a bit later on, but lost you in the crowd. You were probably sitting right behind us (based on your txt), but it is impossible to pick people out. (One of the odd phenomenons of the bank crowd is how hard it is to find your way back to your mates. You end up standing at the base of the grass looking like a dork while the sauce from your hotdog runs down your wrist.)
April 6th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Yeah, was good to meet up Ben.
Problem with catching up like that is that half an hour later you remember all those things you were going to talk or ask about.
It was years since I’d sat in that stand. I wouldn’t want to be there for the whole day, but it was actually quite nostalgic.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
The Basin Reserve looks like a lovely ground to watch cricket when the sun is shining and the wind isn’t out. I think I’d stand most of the time with an occasional sit-down.
April 6th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Heh, yeah we must have been right by you also
Bummer, would have been great to say hi. Nice photos.
April 6th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I have been reading your blog over the series. Thank you for your helpful insights. I prefer such fan blogs to the mainstream media which to far too biased. I include the Indian media here. Only the columnist at “The Hindu” has anything interesting to say. It is a sad indiction of the media that a fan blog is less biased than it. Parore, whom I had liked as a keeper/batsman, especially keeps serving a lot of crap.
April 6th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Sorry, I meant indictment.
April 6th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Actually, studying photo #3 you were right in front of us – did you find out if those guys in the zingy knitwear some kind of David Bain tribute?
April 6th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
[...] at the Basin may turn out to be the most blogged about day ever, with Hadyn, and Ben doing write ups, and Robyn filing a n00b report. Here’s how my day [...]
April 7th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Actually, studying photo #3 you were right in front of us – did you find out if those guys in the zingy knitwear some kind of David Bain tribute?
Were you the guy who kept putting your bare feet in Mike’s face?
And we said the same thing about those fugly jerseyed freaks.
It’s a real pity we didn’t manage to catch up with you and Haydn. (By the way, we had a Public Address celebrity in our group as well.) I should have done something about getting contact details before the match. Though to be honest, I’m a fairly shy type and I would have felt pretty inadequate sitting with one guy headlined on Public Address and another whose archived posts date back to 2004.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
The Basin Reserve looks like a lovely ground to watch cricket when the sun is shining and the wind isn’t out. I think I’d stand most of the time with an occasional sit-down.
I think it is a lovely ground. And well suited to wandering around waving flags and beating drums, as many Indian fans did.