The time - approximately 11:00 a.m.
So, there I was, left to my own devices for an entire day by myself in the capital of England, London.
What did I choose to do?
Go see a cricket match in Lord's cricket ground. (The Home of Cricket)
Out of the million and one things that a boy, alone for the day would've chosen to do.
A boy from Trinidad and Tobago on vacation in London, England.
Why did I do it?
Cause I love cricket that much and it was uppermost in my mind.
Intriguingly the match that was on, was the 5th match of the NatWest Women's Quadrangular Series Australia vs England.
Ultimately England went on to win the final of the series against Australia (I was heartbroken for this)
Nevertheless the story of today is about the time I went to see the Australian women play England on a fairly overcast day as you can see from the pictures below.
The story begins upon my hurrying into the ground, clearly not knowing where I should go to sit because of there not being assigned seats as women's cricket matches are extremely rarely sold out. I was in a slight bit of panic as the match had already started at 10:30 a.m. and I had already missed a few overs of play. Since this was the second time I had been to this ground, the previous time was in 2010, I in no way knew my way around. Also, since it was a women's match there was less that the normal amount of helpful guides/ ushers to point you in the correct direction.
So I darted up the first set of steps I saw and I found myself in an entirely empty stand and I settled in to watch the play. As you can see from the picture below I had a gorgeous view.
Nearly an hour later I was "unfortunately" kicked out by security because the stand I was in was actually closed for this game.
Honestly, I swear that there was no signs indicating that the stand was closed, so I picked up by backpack and slung it over my shoulder and trudged off in search of another stand I could view the match in. I ended up in a stand almost in line with the wicket and I settled in again. I enjoyed the match thoroughly, but I hardly took pictures as I can tell from my photo album of the match.
Typically, the women cricket's don't hit as many sixes as the men, so when Shelley Nitschke launched a six over square leg it landed the row in front of me, I so was not expecting this to happen, that I jumped a little and my only sincere regret from that match is that I didn't dive forward to catch the ball. And I also regret to a lesser extent that I also didn't run to get the ball to throw it back as I was still slightly traumatized from the shock a few seconds earlier.
Now, typically, at the point where Australia hit the winning runs I would've gotten up to leave the ground after clapping them of the field, it was quite overcast at this point, and it started to drizzle slightly (unfortunately I did not have an umbrella). As I was turning to leave I saw the green jacketed stewards opening the gates to field from the stands and spectators started to walk onto the field.
I had the unexpected feeling of privilege of walking onto the field to witness the presentation ceremony as you can see below. Now if it was a men's match, they would've never allowed that to happen. But with only about 1000 people in attendance for this day's match it was more than doable.
This experience made this day one to remember for the exceptional feeling I had being up close and personal to the players.
From the match itself I took 5 pictures, from the presentation ceremony and after I took 43, I just had to capture the moment, and I think I did a pretty good job, seeing how well I remember the experience from almost six years ago.
A couple other things I regret is that I didn't go with anyone so that I could've shared the experience with them and also there are no actual pictures of me from that day. Because I have rarely ever taken selfies of myself, I should get into that habit for situations like this. But I swear all these pictures were taken by me. (except the last one below of the Australian flag, I found that on Pixabay)
For further curious people here is the scorecard and the match report from ESPN Cricinfo.
Australia vs England 5th Match Scorecard
Australia vs England - Match Report
