cricket

practice
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Alex is a nice girl, she said that she'd come along to watch the cricket.  We didn't think we'd still be in New Zealand for the England cricket tour, but seeing as we were I thought it would be a shame to miss out.

We had a really really sunny day, and got a little bit sunburnt sat out on the embankment, got to the ground really early and got a nice space to put our blanket.  Buy the time the game started it was absolutley packed around us, and by then end we were surrounded by schoolboys and drunkards.  It was just like watching cricket back in England, more and more 'hilarious' chanting, for example:

"Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom"

practice
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"Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom"

"Peter, Peter, give us a wave"

"Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom...Sidebottom"

According to The Guardian, this is what happened:

time for some sledging
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In a thrilling finish in Napier New Zealand scrambled a last-ball single to tie with England, after the tourists had set a daunting target of 341. England must now win the last match on Saturday to square the series at two each.

In the end the tie represented a comeback for Paul Collingwood's young England side, after New Zealand - who chased down targets of 337 and 347 to beat Australia 12 months ago - had spent much of their innings making the runchase look as simple as a seaside stroll. With seven overs and seven wickets remaining the Black Caps needed little more than a run a ball.

the final score, and a happy boy
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Jamie How was the stand-out performer for New Zealand, batting for almost 40 overs and reaching 139 with a mix of astute running and murderous leg-side swishes on a brilliant batting pitch. But his side lost four for 39 in the closing overs as the ball began to reverse swing and England finally started to bowl a fuller length. New Zealand needed seven from the last over but managed only six after James Anderson ran out How brilliantly from the fifth ball. From the last the New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori narrowly avoided being run out as he squeaked the single his team needed to tie, as Collingwood's opportunist throw just missed the stumps.

"With six or seven overs to go we were pretty much dead and buried," admitted Collingwood. "They delivered the perfect runchase. How's innings was fantastic, they had wickets in hand at the end and we were looking down the barrel. But I think we stepped it up when the pressure was really on and we dragged something out of the game that we really didn't look like getting."

The run-out of How was small compensation for Anderson, whose waywardness as a bowler had got New Zealand's chase off to a flying start. His 10 overs went for 86, and only Ryan Sidebottom kept control for England, while other seamers fell victim to short boundaries square of the wicket.

Earlier England had scorched to 340, their third-highest one-day score and their best against serious opposition since 1992. The heavily criticised opening pair of Alastair Cook and Phil Mustard finally showed signs of improvement, making 158 in 27 overs. Collingwood then took hold of the game. He made England's fastest-ever fifty (in 24 balls), hitting six sixes and making punchy innings from Ian Bell (43 from 41) and Kevin Pietersen (50 from 47) look pedestrian.

But that good work was undone by some loose bowling and superlative batting on a sunny Napier evening. England looked finished with their opponents needing just a run a ball in the closing overs, and then again when Luke Wright was called up to bowl the last, having not had the ball in his hand all day. But he kept it full and straight and clutched a tie from the jaws of defeat.

"When you've got 340 on the board you fancy your chances, but scores are getting bigger and bigger in one-day cricket all the time, especially on wickets like that," added Collingwood. "You could not miss your mark by six inches on that [pitch], especially with the boundaries being so short as well. We weren't counting our chickens and we knew we'd have to put in a good bowling and fielding performance."

Vettori admitted New Zealand regarded the tie as a defeat after they came so close to wrapping up with the series with a game remaining. "It probably feels like a loss because it was a game we should have comfortably won from the positions we put ourselves in, but you've got give England some credit for the way they bowled in the last six overs," he said. "We probably just threw it away in the last six and were lucky to get the tie in the end. But you can reflect over the whole game and the spectacle of it and I thought Jamie How's innings was one of the best one-day innings I've ever seen so I think cricket people would have loved watching that game."

England now go into the last match on Saturday with a chance of drawing the series, an outcome which looked unlikely as they were being pasted in the first two games.