Saturday 22nd January
We had a morning transfer to the airport at 10.15am today – our next and final destination (for most of us) being Sydney. Vicki was leaving the group to head back home to the UK, so after I’d waved her off at 8.45am then finished packing my bags, I met the rest of the Howzat Travellers in the foyer.
Following a smooth transfer and flight, we landed in Sydney in the early afternoon and boarded our coach to the Rydges World Square hotel – back to where I had been staying during the Ashes Sydney Test. It felt strange being back after a couple of weeks away – the time had flown by, but when I thought back to everything we’d done and seen, it seemed longer than two weeks!
After we’d all checked into our rooms, we went off in separate directions to make the most of the rest of the beautiful, sunny day in Sydney. The Rocks, the Botanical Gardens and Darling Harbour were the choice of place to spend the rest of the afternoon for most of the group.
I headed down to Darling Harbour to meet some friends, and spent the evening with a few bottles of wine and some nice food. Being a Forest fan, I even managed to catch some of the match taking place at home on Saturday afternoon – away to Derby. A 1pm kick-off meant that it started at 12am here in Sydney, and I had every intention of listening to the whole match on internet commentary. The drink and tiredness caught up with me and I think I fell asleep about 20 minutes into the first half!
I awoke at 4am, had a quick look at the score (we won 1-0!), then went back to sleep…
Sunday 23rd January
So, the penultimate full day in Australia for the main tour group and the day of the third Commonwealth Bank Series ODI between Australia and England at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The news reports were full of injury new to both Australia and England (Bresnan and Pietersen), so we would see some changes to the teams today. Strauss had been bemoaning his lack of seamers but did say that England has simply not been good enough so far in the series – a sentiment very much shared with the travelling supporters. We all hoped for an improvement today.
Some of the group gathered in reception to take the 30-minute walk to the SCG together, whilst others made their own way there after deciding to use the free time in the morning to see more of Sydney. Having made this walk a few times during the Sydney test, there was pleasant familiarity to it, and I hoped that we’d be walking away from the ground at the end of the day with the same feeling of jubilation as I did the last time!
Taking our seats in the ground, some decided to seek some shade before play commenced, but by the time the match started, the sun had moved behind the stand and we were out of the baking sun. England had won the toss and decided to bat… and we suffered the loss of our first wicket in the first over! Prior went for a duck for the second match running… can he retain his place as opening batsman in this ODI team any longer?
Trott managed a pedestrian 84 not out off 119 balls, and managed to run out Strauss in an awful mix up as England were on 38. Bell went for 10 and Collingwood was bowled out for 1. All in all, England never really got going and a score of all out for 214 didn’t fill most of the England supporters with much confidence that we’d start a comeback in this series here in Sydney. As it happened, despite some decent bowling from Collinwood and Tremlett (two wickets each), the home side reached 215-6 and won by 4 wickets.
It did look promising at one point in the evening as we sat under the floodlights of the SCG and the wickets of White and Haddin fell on 92 and 100 respectively, but it was not meant to be. Three matches, three losses. The Aussies had regrouped effectively after the Ashes loss, and in the five matches played between Australia and England since the Sydney Test, they had only lost one – the Twenty20 in Adelaide, and that was by just one ball.
Again, we spilled out of a floodlit stadium to make our walk home to our hotel, bemoaning the negative elements of England’s play. It was fairly late by the time we reached the hotel, so most people headed to bed, whilst a few went for a few drinks and drown their sorrows…
