The Kia Oval

Oval Invincibles v Trent Rockets

8th August 2021

So.  Whit is this Hunner thing a' aboot?

Despite promising to myself (pure cricketing snobbery on my part, I acknowledge) that I would never, ever attend a Hundred cricket match, here I was pitching up the Oval to do just such a thing.  In my defence, I was in town, and with a free evening.  Well, sort of free.  The only viable alternative appeared an orchestral rendition of Tubular Bells being performed at The South Bank Centre.  It was a close decision.  

Arriving at The Oval just before 7pm, I had just taken my seat to be informed that, due to the rain that afternoon, play would be delayed, with an inspection at 7:45pm.  "Booo" and "Get on With It" went the frightfully posh looking blonde lady to my left.  For she and hubby had two young kids in tow, and clearly had just realised they were going to have to scoot off long before the end of proceedings to get the cherubs tucked in for the night.  

Indeed, as soon as the first innings was over, I witnessed a stream of irate parents with tired-looking offspring resignedly making for the exits.  So much for the Hundred being child-friendly.

Anyway, the business at hand eventually got underway around 8:20pm, the contest having being truncated to a Sixty-Five, rather than a Hundred match.

I had not realised that the road which surrounds (I was
going to say encircles) The Oval is called Kennington Oval.

The rather impressive external facade to the Oval Pavilion.

The pavilion dates back to the end of the 19th century.

Arguably the most iconic feature of any cricket ground anywhere in the world.

Panorama of The Kia Oval

I think this structure is the OCS Stand,
although it may currently be being called the 1845 Stand.

Those lazy good-for-nothing wind turbines atop the Strata SE1

The Mickey Stewart Terracing - named for the former
player who turned out for Surrey from 1954 to 1972

Oval Head Groundsman puts down the magic sand...

...receiving a huge cheer from the crowd as each fistful hit the turf.

A happy bunny when learning the match will go on.

Wikipedia assures us a chap called Morton Betts scored
the only goal in that 1872 first ever FA Cup Final.

Panorama of The Kia Oval

The Oval Pavilion

A wee shop can be found beneath one of the stands.

One of 20 plaques around the ground commemorating years when
Surrey were County Champions.  Eight times during the 1950s !

The OCS Stand.

Once things got going, the business appeared indistinguishable from a T20 match, to my untutored eyes.  There were those odd 5-ball overs, each signalled by the umpire, somewhat bizarrely brandishing a white card!!  And were there any fielding restrictions different to T20?  I have no idea.

Jason Roy (how Joe Root would have loved him at Lord's a few days later) batted his way through the Invincibles' innings, to post an unbeaten 56 as his side finished their allotted overs on 125/6.   

The Trent Rockets, when they got their turn at the crease, never really looked like successfully chasing down that score.  Australian D'Arcy Short being caught to the third ball he faced, hardly helped the cause.  Nor, I am sure, did Alex Hales taking two direct hits to his family jewels from consecutive Reece Topley deliveries.  Apart from the agony, and the humiliation, these strikes represented as a wag behind me stated, "two dot balls, quite literally".

Rockets' captain Lewis Gregory top scored for his side with 26 (which included a whopping six), but even his not inconsiderable skills were never going to glean the 18 runs required to win from the final over.  Particularly so, as the last over was one of those foreshortened bastardised five-ball jobs.

Thus did The Oval Invincibles win by 9 runs.

Consequently. I had to endure, when waiting to get into the tube station, a bunch of lagered-up toffs bellowing over and over again: "We Are Invincible".  Deftly ignoring the fact their side had lost two of their previous three matches.  

And we think it is the Yanks who don't get irony.

Is it a turret these things are called?

Lots of pyrotechnics to entertain the kiddies as the players take the stage.

Finally...eighty minutes late...we get some cricket.

Oval Invincibles v Trent Rockets  - August 2021

The flame throwers shot flame pretty high.
I could feel the glow on my face.

For all the fact they made the players resemble jockeys,
I rather liked the Rockets' "uniform".

The Oval chaps, by contrast, each looked
as if they wearing mismatched pyjamas.

Quite why the pitch required a police guard between innings was not clear.

Panorama of The Kia Oval

I could well have been sat near to the only Rockets' fan in the place.

One aspect of The Hundred I could most definitely have lived without,
was the over-excitable DJ playing hip-hop at 140db between overs.

Poor Alex Hales took one between the legs...

...then a second seconds later.

With the best will in the world, Trent Rockets were never going
to squeeze 14 runs from the final ball...

...Tom Curran did his best, though, hitting a boundary off the final ball of the evening.

Oval Invincibles v Trent Rockets  -  August 2021

The Oval Pavilion

Oval Invincibles v Trent Rockets  -  August 2021

Panorama of The Kia Oval