Hobart: Returning to the Bellerive Oval ground that I left only at 1am after the Sri Lanka-Scotland match for an early morning interview with David Warner on Thursday was special.
I drove past Australian batsman George Bailey, who was walking alone with his kit bag towards the ground like a young cricketer coming for an early morning practice. Bailey is a resident of Hobart and had enjoyed a few days’ break with his family after the Sri Lanka match in Sydney. I can’t imagine a sub-continent player walking alone carrying his kit bag through the street!
The sweepers were still clearing the rubbish from the Sri Lanka-Scotland match when I walked in. At the entrance to my left was a plaque that showed a batsman standing under a scoreboard showing the total as 908 and a batsman’s score as 566.
This incident happened in 1902, when Charles Eady, a resident of Hobart playing for Tasmanian club Break o’ Day against Wellington club, hit an unbeaten 566 in his team’s total of 908. That is still the second-highest individual score after A.E.J. Collins, who hit an unbeaten 628 in June 1899.
A scribe who was with me, after comparing Eady with Sangakkara’s form at this World Cup, remarked that if there was a three-day match Sangakkara would have broken Eady’s mark and earned a plaque here.
The impact of Sangakkara’s world record-breaking performance of four consecutive centuries was still reverberating around the ground. So one of the questions to Warner was on Sangakkara’s form and he said: “He is seeing them [cricket balls] like beach balls. I think the nick he has been in, he has been in that sort of nick his whole career. He hasn’t been a player who has really been out of form.”
A Sri Lankan journalist lauding Sangakkara was heard asking: “Do you know what is the synonym for consistency? It is Sangakkara.” Another lovely comment I heard on Sangakkara’s form was: “Bowling against in-form Sangakkara is like attacking a Samurai with a toothpick.”
For teams like Australia and Sri Lanka, visiting Hobart has been like going somewhere to regenerate the energies for the big matches ahead by living with nature.
When Warner was asked what he plans to do in this calm island before the match, he said: “I will see the beautiful scenery, lovely mountains and go for some fish and chips. I will just do the everyday things that you do, try and clear my head as much as I can.”
In Thursday’s UAE-South Africa match, when Vernon Philander‘s bouncer struck Mohammad Naveed’s helmet while ducking, it looked like he was heading it over the wicketkeepers head. Sunil Gavaskar, who was commenting then, said it was strange that the runs will be recorded as leg byes. Naveed’s act was a reflection of the UAE’s most popular sport, football.
When Mohammad Tauqir won the toss and elected to field, many tweeted: “UAE has won the toss and elected to concede 450 runs.” By restricting the mighty South Africans to 341 for six, many were forced to swallow their words.
In the press box, the jokes on England team’s early exit continued with snaps of De Villiers with the words ‘carrying South Africa’ and Brendon McCullum with ‘carrying New Zealand’ and thirdly a British Airways plane with ‘carrying England’.