Clouds Loom and Place Dampener on New Years Test

It is 2023 and another year in the Australian test cricket calendar. In recent years the first test match for the commencement of the test cricket calendar year in Australia has been in Sydney, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). This match is the third and final match of the test series between Australia and South Africa. While the Australian media have been building up the series as a gargantuan arm wrestle between two historically strong cricket and test cricket sides. It has not panned out this was with crushing losses by the visitors in Brisbane and then in Melbourne to wrap up 2022. So I am here with Punctual Football Fan Senior to watch day one of this test match and hopefully can see South Africa salvage something out of the test match and hopefully some positives from a series that has not been kind to them.

The last few days in Sydney have been very sunny with the heat being in full swing. It really is summer in Sydney and the past days have been great to get out and about and enjoying what Sydney has to offer. New Year's Eve and the following day have been blessed with great weather and was hoping that this would be the case for the test match. However, Sydney had other plans and the cloudy weather and the threats of rain, were building to give our match day viewing experience a more gloomier one. While it wasn't scorching hot like the previous days, it wasn't exactly cold, more cooler and humid as the clouds bearing rain would make it a bit of a muggier affair, but not uncomfortable.

The match had started as you would have expected with Australia winning the toss and electing to bat first. While in Melbourne this was an unusual decision to not do so, that turned out to be the winning strategy. With the decision to bat first this time is by far more conventional and safer, going on what has happened in the previous two tests, this might be yet another winning strategy. I forgot to mention that the Sydney test matches, specifically day 1 of a test match is the Pink Test, in celebration of Glen McGrath's wife Simone and to raise funds for the Glen McGrath Breast Cancer Foundation. While I personally think that there are many breast cancer foundations, it is very important to maintain medical research into cancer research and other medical conditions as there are people very close to me, who have been affected by these conditions and with our donations, we can hopefully find a solution.

The hosts started well, with the loss of an early wicket being the only blemish on the Australians as they were slowly building up a total for the South Africans to chase. While the South African's were not bowling too badly, they were not taking charge and putting Australia under serious pressure. This resulted in Australia just being able to push the ball around and tick the strike over, building the total at a steady pace. Though the clouds were constantly threatening to put a halt on the day's play at any time. While the reports stated that the rain was imminent and building from 70% up to 80, 84 and then at 95%. It was just a matter of time when this would occur and if it would be sufficient to halt play and cause serious disruptions to the day's play.

Well this certainly did occur at around 2.30 in the afternoon with the umpires opting to take tea to soak up the time and hopefully not lose too much time from the rain. While the rain was not heavy, nor light, it was enough to trigger both umpires to call tea earlier and then wait if the rain eases off and allows play to resume. The rain while easing, was not enough to resume play straight away and after a bit of a delay the umpires had checked and thought that it would be time to head back out and resume play. While this was all happening, due to the clouds and how Sydney had become more and more grey. Caused the lights to be switched on in hope of helping the game resume and be sufficient to play. While I have come all this way to watch test cricket and hoping that I am able to see more, it would be unfair and difficult to see the ball in such darkened conditions. Facing any type of bowler, be it fast, slow or a spinner, the darkness of the red ball in such gloomy conditions is too troublesome. So the game was delayed for bad light and then called, thus concluding the first day with Australia on 147 for 2 wickets.

Now the food was very good, now my new me is unable to try everything at once. I did give some dishes a try and thought they were simply delicious and were an excellent compliment to the game, just a shame about the weather depriving us to see a full day's play. To start off I had butter chicken Kathi roll with coriander. Now It comes with two and they're more open and wrapped. The servings were more than enough for me and I really did struggle to eat this. However, it was just simply a delicious butter chicken delight and you just cannot go wrong with such a British-Indian classic. I had this with a can of coke and the cool refreshing taste of coke just always hits the spot for me and today at the cricket was no different. The coke was 3.50 and the butter chicken Kathi rolls were 17 dollars each. While they were delicious and a nice portion, I think that it is probably 2 dollars overpriced but all-in-all was just what I wanted to start the day's play off and also double up as my breakfast.

As the rain was starting to threaten the game, we retreated to higher and more sheltered ground. This meant that we were further up into the grandstands and had a more elevated view of the match before the rain and the poor light had put an end to the day. It was a hotdog, but an "El Loco" hotdog to be more precise. This was at 12 dollars and was quite a serving compared to a regular, run-of-the-mill hotdog you would be more familiar with. It is somewhat akin to a Brazilian hotdog, but not as crazy with an overloading of toppings. It was with cheese, tomato, salsa, jalapenos, mayonnaise, sauce, spring onion and some chilli in for good measure. The hotdog itself was nice, the bread was soft and fresh. With the toppings making the whole thing go down nicely with a bit of a kick but not too spicy. I do like very spicy food, so for me it was rather tame, but it had a bit of a kick, or 'tickle' for me to notice the jalapenos and the chilli. What a sight to watch the game, with the Sydney CBD is the backdrop and just experiencing all the flavours of the el loco and having a can of sprite to top it all off. The can was the same price as the coke and the hotdog I think was a reasonable price for a gourmet style dog.

While the weather spoiled the plans for me to watch the first day's play between two very good teams in world test cricket, to get an almost full day was satisfying enough and to have good food to go with it made it all that more enjoyable. Stadium food in Australia has really lifted their game from the old days where it was basically supermarket food with a horrendous mark-up. While it is at times a bit on the pricy side, the taste of some of these does almost make up for it. I think that the price-taste value balance is almost there, though venues will always favour the price side of things and I do not blame them. Another enjoyable day at the cricket, despite the circumstances and hopefully I shall be back again soon and do it all over again.