Saturday Cricket

We had agreed in a moment of madness, that we would spend Saturday at the test match between Australia and South Africa. Our reasoning was two or even threefold, one, we had never been to the WACA and might not get the chance agin, two it was Ricky Pointing's last match and it would be emotional, three Rosemarie had never been to a cricket match, let alone a test match. 

We were up early and left at 9.30 and arrived at the ground at 10.00 have walked across the Cuaseway to get in. The walk was interesting as Margaret had this desire to make us cross busy freeways where there was no crossing point. There is nothing quite so comical as four adults scuttling across a busy road when the opportunity arose, trying hard not to get run over. I did point out, rather forcibly I felt, that I had felt my life was in danger. Having been through this rather risky operation once , I was more than a little surprised when I was asked to do it again. 

Anyway we arrived safely in the ground. 

The cricket was really interesting we saw 10 wickets in the day, and over 300 runs. Ponting got a standing ovation when he came out but only scored 4 runs. Australia collapsed and at one time were 7 for 65 and were saved by an innings from Wade. They were all out after lunch and in the afternoon session South Africa put on 200 runs. The crowd, being a little bored got stuck into their beers and began to play make a snake with empty plastic beer glasses. This apparently innocuously pastime is apparently banned at the WACA and as soon as the stewards saw this they descended to confiscate the cups. This led to an ongoing set of skirmishes between supporters and security , it also led to several spectators being evicted from the ground.  

Australia struggled in the field as South Africa applied pressure and it clearly was not going well for the home side. At the close of play South Africa were already 270 runs in the lead.

The walk home, I am pleased to report was a little safer than the walk in and we arrived home tired but pleased with the day. 

A typical Aussie barbecue for tea and a couple of bottles of red wine sealed a perfect day made even better by the fact that Rosemarie said she might go to the cricket again.

After tea we had a planning session for our trip to Adelaide and we went to bed with a much clearer idea of what we might be able to achieve.