Eight Years Ago

There is one reason the Basin is sold out for this test.  The main one being that it’s been 8 years since Australia have blessed us with their test presence.

Clearly, we are humbled by this, but it’s an interesting recall of what that last test match was like.

Keys to the City

Played in the capital city.

The Wellington mayor at the time Celia Wade-Brown presented something call the Keys of the City of Wellington to Brendon McCullum, and the first day became a strangely politicised thing.  Then Minister for Sport Jonathan Coleman did a circuit of the ground during lunch, casually tossing his navy blazer over the shoulder while waving to the crowd.

That was a nice and presumably genuine gesture, except nobody had a clue as to who he was.

The Voges dismissal

Voges was bowled by Doug Bracewell at the end of the first day.  The thing is, it wasn’t a no-ball.  He would then turn that 7 into 207.

Allan Border was dismissive of the outrage.  He said it was an outlier (Ed Note.  Was that a term in 2016?).  He claimed it had never happened before and was unlikely to occur again.

To be fair, he’s right so far.

NZ Media Time capsule

It’s early in the second session on the Saturday, and the late Dave Leggat gets a phone call with that distinctive dog barking ring.

“Oh fuck off.

I don’t want to talk to you , little shit”

Pause

“Hi Tony, how are you?”

It’s not often you get to laugh out loud.

Contrast in National disasters

On the third day a couple of things happened.

Some bored kids set off a fire in the Twon Belt, and Christchurch suffered what turned out to be its largest major aftershock.

Some Australian media talked about evacuating the Basin because of their ingrained fear of bushfires.  New Zealand media checked news feeds because of their ingrained fear of earthquakes.

Basin to the naughty chair

In true Wellington style the pipes failed and floating things flowed down the gutter at the back of the RA Vance Stand.

The late Ashley Mallett, getting out of his cab before a speaking engagement, couldn’t believe what he was seeing or smelling.

And he was from Adelaide.

NZ Cricket was not impressed, and put the Basin Reserve in the naughty chair.  It took five more years before NZ Cricket HQ hosted another test against a Top 3 nation.

Swing

In both innings Australia got it to revers after about 20 overs.  For some reason that seems like a time capsule too.

Henry Nicholls debut

It feels like some circle, and highlights just how long it’s been since Australia toured here.

He scored 59 in the second inning, proving he had it against the best attacks.  It was the stuff away from home that ended up being the issue.

The following test in Christchurch would see Neil Wagner adopt the short bowling tactic with success, so that seems like another circle closed.