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On Friday night, I headed straight from work and met my wife and kids – who caught a train in – at the MCG.
From under the Leigh Matthews statue outside gate four, we headed in, grabbed a seat behind the non-existent Punt Rd goals, and fed up on overpriced hot food along with the chips and choccies we had brought in.
It was a footy-like atmosphere. A good crowd was building up, a bit like an early season game in March or a balmy August late season game.
The difference – this was for the cricket.
It had roughly a 3-hour time commitment, and the atmosphere of an evening game. It wasn’t too late, so you could take the kids.
And it was cheap. A family of 4 for only $25 and our littlest was free and didn’t get registered in the crowd total.
As for the game, well, the Vics got up pretty easily in the end. Tassie looked like setting nearer 200, Tim Paine showed his absolute class (the sooner he’s an Australian regular the better).
But Cameron White kept switching his bowlers around and didn’t let the Tassie bats settle. Finally, the wickets started falling regularly.
The Vics chase was almost script perfect. Local hero Brad Hodge made 90, and fell only in trying to eek out the last 10 for the 100 out of the, at that point, only about 14 more needed for the win.
43,125 was the official crowd, most stood to applaud Hodgey off the MCG. In the end, the twenty20 format delivered in a very meaningful way. It delivered a fitting tribute to a fine servant of Victorian cricket.
And we then headed home, via a packed car park, pretty content in a great night out. There were wickets, 4s and 6s, a bit of music, some gas-fired flamers when a 6 was scored, and fireworks at the end of the night. It wasn’t all tradition, but then, I was there for a day of the Boxing day test and that delivered in its own way too.
Cricket is much the better for these two forms of the game.
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