Lords!

Couple of weeks left in London, so decided to tale a half day and go to the penultimate England V Pakistan One Day International at Lords.

I've been to Lords before, but had never seen a day-night match. So I ordered my ticket and looked forward to the event. England were 2 up in the series. But a betting scandal had broken out before the first match that could affect the forthcoming match. (And I was worried that the rain may be a problem!)

After the second match, a Sunday tabloid had revealed that they had evidence that an "agent" close to the team, could persuade the Pakistan bowlers to bowl no balls to order! They produced video evidence of the conversation, where the "agent" said that in certain balls in certain overs would be "no balls" and when the match was played, sure enough they did! This would result in a betting coup on what are called spot bets, i.e. betting on how many ruyns will be scored in a set number of overs, or when No Balls and Wides will be bowled. With the odds on predicting a no ball so high there was a lot of money to be made, especially if you knew exactly when this would happen.

So before the one day series had started there was a lot of heated debate as to what was going to happen.

England had won the test series easily and with a demoralised team missing key players England won the first two one day matches easily.

The 3rd match had been at the Oval on the Friday and England had let a possible victory slip, or though to be fair, the Pakistan bowlers did play well.

On the Sunday, the papers were full of allegations from the Pakistan management team that England had accepted bribes to lose the 3rd match to keep the series alive to generate more money. this had then set off a war of words between the England team and management and the Pakistan cricket board.

I set off from Crewe on the 06:02 train to Euston as usual , not knowing if the ticket I had in my rucksack would be of any use.

I got to the office at 08:30 and checked on the BBC website. Still not sure! Talks going on.

As my colleagues informed me as they arrived in the office, all the Radio reports were suggesting that the game would not go on. Typical.

Then, at about 10:00, and hour before the gates to Lords were due to open, it was announced that the game was on!

The game was due to start at 1pm, but I planned to work until 12:00, walk to the hotel and check in, change and head to the ground. I could not check in until 12:30, but if I missed the first hour it would be ok.

There was quite a queue waiting to check in, but as I was a regular at the hotel, I was invited to another desk to check in.

I got up to my room, changed and left, stopping at the Tesco Express for a sandwich and some snacks as well as a couple of "stellas". You were allowed to take two cans in to the ground. They did count them as well.
I got on the tube at Wembley Park station and headed for St John's Wood. The game had started and I was listening to the progress on the Radio. When I left the station I joined the throng that was heading for the ground and after about a 5 minute walk, I was at the entrance. I was entering via the Nursery end into the ground and then to the Edrich Stand, Lower Tier, Row 11 Seat 17.

I walked through the Nursery area, where the Nets are, but it was which was full of people drinking and eating and watching the game on the big screen. I got my programme and was also given my 6 and 4 card, for waving wildly whenever a boundary was scored. I headed for my seat and as I got to the steps fo the stand a mighty roar went up and I turned to see that Pakistan had lost their first wicket at 62 in the 14th over. I got to the top of the steps and at the end of the over, I was allowed in to the stand.

I was in the lower tier, under the modernistic "media centre" at about the 3rd man position of the boundary. The stand was fairly full, but there were some gaps to my right and about 5 or 6 rows of school kids , 13 to 16 year olds, who would become more and more of a pain as the day wore on. But I settled down, headphones on ready for the action I tuned into the Sky Commentary on my radio.

The first thing I realised was how small the ground looked, the second was how far back the England wicketkeeper was standing to the fast bowling! The speed of the ball was also something that you don't get a feel for on the TV.

Apart form the annoying school kids, the game went along pretty quietly, with a fairly slow run rate and wickets falling on a fairly regular basis,with Swann doing most of the damage. The main excitement being a six from Afridi that sailed into the pavillion which a spectator tried to catch, only to miss and get it right between the eyes!


The empty seats to mi right had suddenly filled up with some young Pakistan fans who had obviously been waiting for the final exciting overs. The atmosphere and the noise soon lifted.
Afridi went shortly after and at 210 for 7 after 45 overs it was looking like a fairly low target for England to chase.
 
Then Abdul Razzaq came in and scored 42 runs off the last 2 overs to get the score up to a more than respectable 265.
 
Everyone started to leave the stand for refreshments and as I had finished my alloted cans, I headed of for something to eat and drink! I decided against the Veuve Cliquot champagne tent and sampled a cheaper fair from the Marstons bar.
 
After a quick trip around the ground, a visit to the souvenir shop, it was back to my seat to prepare for the England innings.
 
The seats were full again and the Pakistan fans were in fine voice, encouraging their fast bowlers to rip into the Enlish top order, but Strauss and Davies, the England Wicket keeper were scoring for fun, with numerous boundaries, not looking troubled at all. The Paksitan fans nearby were soon quietened down and many went off for a stroll!!!
 
At 113 in the 20th over, Davies played an airy shot and was bowled on 49, Trott came in, bit scratched around for a few overs and then was out, followed a couple of overs later by Strauss who had scored 68, but from  113 in the 20th over England were now 127 for 3 after 26!
 
After giving the Pakistan fans some friendly banter, things were looking bad as the dark set in and the lights were on.
 
The ground looked fantastic under the lights and the ball was much easier to follow. Three stands of 20 nudged England closer and the atmosphere was building with the return of the Pakistan fans. Time to receive some friendly abuse!
 
Sure enough wickets started to tumble and England were finally bowled out for 227, with 4 overs to spare.
 
I heard the last two wickets fall as I was just about to enter St John's Wood tube station. I wanted to miss the rush for the tube!
 
It was a great experience, pity about the result.
 
Englan comfortably won the final game at the Rose Bowl, Southampton, but I watched it on the TV in the hotel!