Tag: cricket

Catch of the Day

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I actually spotted this on Sky News last night while looking out for the draw for the FA Cup 4th Round – something my boys like to toy with occasionally. And then I forgot about it while attempting to sleep in the heat and humidity of Cape Town.
But then I was reminded of it by the Insurance Guy via the medium of Facebook. Yay for him and that.

As one comment notes:

It’s a shame it will go down in history as c Mason b Nethula. It doesn’t do justice to the job that Small did at all.

That could be said for United’s 3rd round exploits as well. While the scoreline will forever read 3-1, it doesn’t do justice to the 74,316 shots we had at Salisbury’s goal. Nor for the amazing job their goalkeeper did.

Still – all’s well that ends well – a win is a win and a wicket is a wicket.

Mental!

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Yesterday’s cricket at Newlands was a bit mental and broke all sort of records. And even those records that it didn’t break, it threatened with physical violence and actual bodily harm.
Cricinfo’s chief statistician S Rajesh was watching it all from the safety of Bangalore and produced this wonderful summary of what happened, what didn’t happen and what nearly happened.

It’s worth a read.

And even today, it’s been a bit odd:

Lots of silly hype about 11/11/11 and especially about 11:11 on 11/11/11.

In the cricket at Newlands, SA messed up by being 111/1 11 minutes early at 11:00 on 11/11/11.
However, they made up for it 11 minutes later by needing 111 to win at 11:11 on 11/11/11.

*cue twilight zone music*

Great er… “weekend”…

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What an amazing weekend for Cape Town sports fans.

There’s another football double-header at Cape Town Stadium, with Vasco da Gama up against Golden Arrows and Ajax Cape Town taking on Moroka Swallows – that’s tonight at 6pm and 8:45pm.

Then there’s Pro 20 cricket at Newlands (that’s Sahara Park Newlands to you and me), er… tonight at 6pm.

And then, if football and cricket don’t interest you, you can watch the Stormers take on the Lions at Newlands (that’s DHL Newlands to you and me). That one kicks off – predictably – tonight at 7pm.

The rest of Cape  Town’s weekend is completely sport free, although there is some sort of fashion parade at a local racecourse tomorrow.

But seriously – can’t these organisations (and in saying this, I’m assuming that there is some sort of organisation involved) talk to one another? I might have liked to do two, if not three of those matches, but I’m unable to because they’re all at the same time!

This will provide further ammunition for those who say that the Cape Town Stadium is unsustainable when a less than sustaining crowd turn out for the footy this evening. But those who might have gone to the footy (and then somewhere to some other sporting event on another day) are now going to some other sporting event on the same day.

It’s like organising Danny K at the Bellville Velodrome and Kurt Darren at Grand West on the same night that U2 are playing Green Point.

Bono is going to be justifiably disappointed if Cape Town spreads herself so thinly again.

UPDATE: But sing ho for a Cape Clean Sweep:
12,000 at the football to see Vasco win 1-0 and Ajax win 2-0 (and go top of the league).
13,000 at the rugby to see the Stormers win 15-0.
15,000 at the cricket to see the Cobras win by 5 wickets.

Good work, lads.

Too close to home

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Several emails and tweets asking why I am not blogging about the Luke Fairweather story.
It’s a reasonable question. Thanks for asking.

Occasionally  – just occasionally – there are topics which I would LOVE to blog about, but am unable to. These are generally specific and local issues which are linked somehow to what we in the blogging sector call “Real Life”.
One of the rules that I have laid down for myself and to which I still rigidly adhere is that my blogging must not negatively impinge on my “Real Life” or that of my family or friends (and relationships with those individuals).

The Luke Fairweather case is one of those times. Despite me having strong feelings on this story, Mr Fairweather and I shared a mutual friend (a regular reader, he claims) (and I have no reason to doubt him) and thus this one falls neatly into that “too close to home” category because my respect for my “Real Life” friends and their thoughts come ahead of airing my views on here.

There’s more on the Fairweather story from IOL here and a brilliantly concise, yet sensitive blog from Jacques Rousseau here.

Boring heroism

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As Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell display boring heroism and continue to frustrate the South Africans just down the road at Newlands, I have better things to be doing than blogging. And not that I want SA to succeed in winning this game, but maybe they’d do better if they had a little help.

You know, like the help that the Sharks use – the cheerleading help:

Give me an H!   Ohhhh K!   Give me an S!

Might be a bit warm at Newlands for those trenchcoats, though.