Spectators,
It’s not every day of the week that you wander into Hurstville Oval and by complete chance happen to witness one of the finest one-day hundreds that you would ever want to see.
The old ground is just as it was a few seasons back now, when me and the children attended our first ever Twenty20 game between two scratch NSW XI’s the week before Christmas because they had nothing else to do,
Now though, the eastern skyline is dominated by cranes and massive blocks of flats going up.
Went through the turnstiles at half time on Saturday afternoon, thinking Tasmania’s 246 off 45 overs after an early rain delay looked defendable, but wasn’t counting on the very small, perfectly circular nature of the oval, with the old velodrome running around the boundary.
It has fallen into a sad state of disrepair, and while some attempts have been made to repair the cracks, you wouldn’t want to race high-performance push bikes around there much anymore.
It seemed like they had rolled out a gorgeous batting track, and the first thing seen on entering the ground was David Warner punching a huge six off the back foot over cover, as if using a number three wood as the driver, that was still on the up as it cleared the perimeter fence, and would have dead set landed in someone’s front yard in Timothy Street.
They sent out a posse of children to look for the ball, but don’t know that they ever found it.
Dave “Suburban Boy” Warner is a solid, compact left hander, who appears to be made for the one-day game as an opening pinch hitter.
He’ll be a sensation in Twenty20,
Warner and Hughes put on 0/48 in the first five overs – which prompted a punter at the bar to remark to me “mate, look at this, this is going to be a carve up!”
How right he was.
Warner, in all, tonked nine sixes, including a corker from the northern end that sailed over the Ray Lindwall Sightscreen [Hurstville has a curious tradition of naming the sightscreens after famous local players – the Bill O’Reilly Sightscreen is at the other end] and landed on the pavilion roof and stayed there.
They sent some boy shimmying up a drain pipe to retrieve it.
Dave simply collared a fair half way decent bowling attack that featured the likes of Hilfenhaus & Dighton, among others, neck and crop.
In the over before bringing up his ton, he pulled three consecutive sixes over mid wicket off Marsh; all three clearing the bike track, and the picket fence.
And this from a 21 year old kiddie who only a couple of weeks ago on interview with some ratbag journo was quoted as saying something along the lines of “the likes of the Ricky Ponting’s of this world are finished. It’s time to let young blokes step up and have a go”.
As you can imagine, this raised some eyebrows in certain circles.
But it didn’t stop Dave, who ended up pummeling a chanceless 165 not out to win the game by nine wickets, with plenty of overs in hand.
When he got to his hundred, he had scored 80+ from boundaries.
He called for a runner on 145, when it appeared that he had cramped up so badly, that he had done himself a mischief.
There appeared to be a few hundred in, scattered around the ground, but for the first time in a long time, they actually published an official crowd figure, which was posted at 1,250.
Obviously, there was no pressure on the hospitality tents that had been nicely set up by the St George Cricket Club.
The Carlton Draught served off the tap that still had “the Official Beer of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games” logo etched onto it was nice and icy, and completely sensible at $5 a schooner.
There was a rush when they announced that the steak sandwiches were going for half price after 5pm, and that you’d be a fool to yourself and a burden on the community if you didn’t get one.
Had my first close encounter with the elusive The Man and His Dog.
He’d found a choice spot underneath the pavilion balcony and had set himself up in a fold out directors chair.
He was impeccably dressed in a class pair of track pants and sandals, teamed with a stylishly ratty jumper, with no shirt on underneath, and topped with a green and gold Australian cap that looked like it had been rescued from a bin at some Strayan one day game in the 80’s.
His only accoutrements appeared to be a couple of Thermos’s and a pair of field glasses.
Perched on his lap was a very small fox terrier type dog; you know the sort thing, the kind of canine whose head is constantly on the move, with the eyes always darting all over the shop.
It was the epitome of a very nervous dog.
Obviously, The Man has trained His Dog to sweat over the outcome NSW Bluebags games.
Perfect.
Dave Warner beat Rick McCosker’s record one-day score for NSW by one run, with a four, to bring up the winning runs, just as a big thunderstorm was brewing out the back, and umpires Abood & Tucker were happy enough to scurry off the ground.
Asked on interview after the game what it was like, the kiddie was beside himself:
“I can’t believe what I’ve just done. It was surreal out there”.
