My first T20

After my dramas trying to give away a T20 ticket, I was fortunate enough to find an old school friend willing to go.  I was lucky that my Sri Lankan friend was already going with his brother, so a third friend took the chance. The weather reports predicted rain and possible thunderstorms (kryptonite for cricket) but we took our chances regardless.


We met up at the brewery bar beforehand and had an early dinner at the bistro. Our seats were not close to my friends so we did our reminiscence before the game. It had been 3 years since I had seen these guys so was a little surprised that the conversation was focused on school days and not current times.


We finally made it for the start of the game. It was odd watching cricket at Homebush - the modular ground made the concourse narrow and the field felt more square than round. The outfield was slow, making for a low scoring match. Our seats were square of the wicket near an end - not terrible but not ideal either. Australia batted first but made a low total that you felt wasn't enough.
 

Original seating.

In the interval we found our Sri Lankan friend. His seats were near the side screen and much better than ours. There were a few free seats in front of him so we relocated. Sri Lanka were off to a good start in their innings but faltered near the middle of their innings, before finishing off the job and winning on our national day.

Upgraded seating = Coming out onto the ground.

Upgraded seating during play

It was interesting to see the innovations that were made to make the game more interesting to fans. There was music snippets at regular intervals, an Australian / Sri Lankan dance off every time there was on - field action, Good Charlotte played in the interval, fancy dress competitions and there was regular twitter messages posted on the big screens.

Good Charlotte - interval entertainment.

Australia may not have won but at least the weather held off and I had a good time and I can cross 'attend a T20 game' off my things to do list.