The year was 2015, the venue the Melbourne Cricket Ground and it was the World Cup, I was going with an Aussie mate of mine called Don who pretended to be a dab hand at cricket but he inflated his own ego by stating that he once threw the wickets down from long on, what he carefully avoided was that the ball bounced about three or four times before it reached the target.The normal Aussie likes to brag about his cricketing prowess and this one was no exception. “Nah mate, the cup is ours” said Don knowing that the Australians were the favorites. I said to him that New Zealand and South Africa were strong teams, with Sri Lanka and India being outsiders. Eventually as things turned out Don was right.
Rewinding myself to the inaugural match of the 2015 World Cup at the MCG the previous night we had the opening ceremony at “The Meyer Music Bowl.” It showcased Australia’s indigenous singer Jessica Mauboy. It added an antipodean flavour to the proceedings. The following day it was bright, without being too hot. England took on the confident Aussies, in the first match of the World Cup in Australia. A huge and partisan crowd absorbed the atmosphere with relish. True to form this day was no exception, amidst the usual ear bashing”Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi, there was plenty of free advice for the ‘Poms’. ’Oy Jimmy to James Anderson. ”Bowl straight or you will never get us out” and ‘hey Root, go home, your mother is ill” etc.
The Barmy Army stationed themselves strategically close to the nearest bar and made their presence felt in similar fashion. We were getting carried away by the sight of the stadium and a frisson of anticipation on the morning of the match. We have bought our false moustaches to be worn in case our grinning faces would appear on the TV screen and ample stocks of patties and cutlets and chilled lagers in the cooler box. Eoin Morgan won the toss and sent Australia in, only to see dropped catches allowing the Aussies to pile up a massive 342, their highest ODI score at the MCG. This session was miserable for England. Their much vaunted spinner Ali was hit for 60 in 9 overs; in fact all their bowlers had over 60 scored off them in their respective spells except for Joe Root who only bowled 1 over at the marauding Finch, who belted his first two balls for a four and a six. Ironically their 6’ 7” fast bowler Finn collected a hat trick, claiming the wickets of Maxwel, Hadding and Johnson. Since the break was on, we reached for the sandwich box and the munching started followed by visits to the bar and more importantly to the adjacent toilet, the beer helped somewhat to drown the sorrows of self because I pinned for England.
When it was England’s turn to bat, Ian Bell showed a lot of confidence.He was the one England player who was in some sort of form, his shots off the back foot were pleasing to the eye, and his timing too was inch perfect and hitting the sweet spot spontaneously. Moin at the other end was uncharacteristically circumspect; perhaps the big audience in front of a large crowd got the better of him. Bell, who made his debut the previous year, played McGrath with a lot confidence, which augured well for England. A procession of crestfallen batsmen came to the crease survived a few balls and returned to the pavilion dejected, as if they were happy to get back. Eoin Morgan of whom much was expected survived only six balls and got out for a duck. Stuart Broad the hard hitting all-rounder was bowled by Starc for a first ball duck. Only the redoubtable Taylor and the athletic fast bowler Woakes put up any resistance .The former controversially given out at 98 by the distinguished umpire Dharmasena, to end a comedy of errors the Bard could have written of.
The talk of the town these days is Champions Trophy and our team has left for England to front up with the best of the best and wish them the very best of luck. It seems that our team will perform like a well-oiled machine which should fire on all cylinders. My hunch is that a lot will depend on how Malinga and Kulasekera perform at the death overs and how well Asela Gunaratne performs as an all-rounder together with Seekkuge Prasanna.
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