23rd July 2017
Sussex Sharks v Kent Spitfires
(T20 Blast)
Bleakly staring out
over the County Ground this afternoon, as the precipitation panelled
down, I reflected upon just how many of my cricket watching ventures
south of the border had been blighted by the rain. Matches at
Durham, Lords, Edgbaston, Derby and Worcestershire had all, if memory
served, been either interrupted, delayed or curtailed by inclement
weather. Add to that list the hour-and-a-half I had stood in a
downpour at The Grange in Edinburgh recently, and I could not help
but wonder if I had been particularly unfortunate. Or if my
experience was simply typical of the lot of your average cricket fan.
The weather again
(ahem) rained my parade on this trip, initially sending me scurrying
to the south coast, after it became clear my original destination
(Sophia Gardens) was going to be extremely well-watered today.
In the event Kent, in
this T20 Blast match, played out their allotted 20 overs in
persistent, but only lightly spitting rain, the business only getting
serious during the final over. This fact perhaps contributing to the
visitors' Jimmy NEESHAM effortlessly flicking both the closing two
balls for identical-looking sixes; Kent bowler David WIESE perhaps in
too much of a hurry to get out of the wet. Those twelve runs, which
took NEEDHAM's personal total to 36, and his side's to 176, would
prove to be crucial.
The players went off
around 16:50 and it would be two hours before we saw them again, as
the weather did its best to end proceedings there and then. But the
rain gradually eased off, allowing the busy-bee ground staff to work
their magic. Perfect, I thought, we will get this match finished
after all. Only to learn, the “rest” of the contest would
consist of just 8 overs, the home side having been set an amended
target of 88 to win.
Why? Well, the rather
vague reason of “competition rules” was spouted by our announcer,
but the question remained in my head: Why?
The heavy rain had
plainly stopped for the evening – indeed there were by now large
blue patches of sky showing. We were playing with a white ball and,
rather more importantly, the ground enjoyed floodlights - which had
been switched on for some time. So why were we being denied out full
quota of entertainment – particularly as we had, or at least I had,
shelled out the not inconsiderable sum of £28 for our pleasure? I could
think of no reason why the full 20 overs could not be, at the very
least, attempted.
Anyway – clearly
feeling the tally was well within their reach, the home batsmen
swiftly set about Kent opening bowler Matt COLES; Chris NASH hitting
him for a four and then a six off the opening two balls. Luke WRIGHT
subsequently scored a six off the last ball of the beleaguered chap's
over, giving Sussex a flying start of 19 from the first over. The
fourth over (bowled by Mitchell CLAYDON) was almost as productive with
the result Sussex, on 42/2 at the halfway point, looked well on
course to do the business. But a significantly more disciplined 5th
over by COLES yielded just 7 runs, and it became apparent this
contest was likely to go down to the final few balls.
As indeed it did. With
Sussex requiring two runs off the last ball, NASH bashed it as far as
he could towards the boundary, but his partner Laurie EVANS just
could not scamper fast enough to beat Alex BLAKE's remarkable
long-range throw and was run out - leading to a thrilling, and yet
vaguely unsatisfying, tied match.
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