Prior to the second game of three in a day of T20 cricket Jen and I did a circuit of the New Wanderers Stadium to see what was available to eat and drink. If we’d brought our own sausages we could have cooked them on the braais provided by Weber.
Who does the washing up?
We were sausageless though and had to settle for ready cooked food from the selection of stalls around the perimeter. The stadium was starting to fill up a bit by this stage as the people for whom a ten o’clock start was a bit too early made an appearance.
Getting busier.
Our seats were upstairs in the Unity Stand. I can recommend it as a place to sit as not only does it have its own bar, but there is some interesting memorabilia in the upstairs concourse. We spent some time checking out the photos, trophies and clothing from the last hundred years or more.
There were also a selection of signed bats dating back over the same period including one used and signed by Herbert Sutcliffe. The newest bat on display had been signed by Mike Gatting’s infamous ‘rebel‘ team of 1990. For those who need their memories jogging, that tour was the one organised by the South African government in the final days of apartheid. It all went tits up for Gatting and his mates when the unbanning of the ANC, the release of Mandela and the subsequent demonstrations against the tour meant that they crept home early after just the one ‘Test‘.
I suppose the bat had a bit of social history value, but I doubt that any of those who had signed it would look back on events with pride.
View from the upper tier of the Unity Stand.
The Cobras did pretty well in their innings with Richard Levi dominating proceedings early on. He tonked a quick-fire ninety-one including fifty off just two overs. Kieran Pollard then did his stuff towards the end of the innings with his half-century taking the total to 207 for 5.
Richard Levi.
For the Titans innings we followed the sunshine to the other side of the ground and sat on the benches in the open air East Stand. There were a few kids down at the front who alternated between collecting autographs and the slightly more grown-up activity of Beer Pong. That’s pretty much a perfect time of life to be at.
One of the additional interests in the Ram Slam T20 is that anyone in the crowd who catches a six with one hand wins a share of a million rand. There were big celebrations when a lad to our left managed to do just that. Sadly though, the celebrations were cut short when the small print revealed that as he was four months short of his eighteenth birthday, he wasn’t eligible for the prize. That’s a less than perfect time of life.
Looking along the East Stand.
The Titans looked to have the game in the bag with a record opening stand of 151 between Henry Davids and Dean Elgar. Once the partnership was broken it just required the remaining batsmen to maintain the run-rate for the last five overs and victory would have been theirs.
Davids and Elgar celebrate a shedload of runs.
They couldn’t do it though, perhaps because we were at that stage where the fading light wasn’t fully compensated for by the floodlights, and the Titans ended up fourteen runs short.
Two games in a day was enough for Jen and I and so with people still arriving for the final match we nipped out of a side gate and left them to it.
Trail of the Lion King 
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