20/20 Fun

Maybe it's just because I'm American, accustomed to sporting events which take less than half a day to end, but, now that I have actually been to an international 20/20 match, I have to say that it's a great format to watch. I was at Friday night's England vs. West Indies match, which was by far my best experience attending an international cricket match in person.

It was an excellent match. It began with muscular, middle-of-the-bat fireworks from Chris Gayle, who scored 33 runs before his batting partner got off his duck. Then the outcome hinged on a couple of key bowling changes. First, when England captain Paul Collingwood put himself in to bowl and got Gayle to sky one he gave himself a chance to win his first victory as captain. Then, when the West Indies fast bowlers had England shackled after eliminating their big-name batsmen, they were forced to put on their slower bowlers, who were subjected to some clever boundaries by man of the match Owais Shah. The key moment was a pre-meditated shovel shot by Shah which dribbled through the wide-open fine leg area to the boundary. This happened while the unfortunate guys next to me had gone out for beer. Before their beer run Shah and Mascarenas had been reduced to nudging for singles with the required rate looking too high, and then suddenly they were in the hunt again after getting something like 14 runs off the over. England won with just 3 balls to spare.

Not coincidentally, this was the first time I had the opportunity to be present at the finish of an international match. Last year's one-day match at Cardiff was rained out, so there was no finish to cheer. I've also gone to two test matches, but in both cases when the match ended I was not even in the same city. 20/20 is a great format for people who have to travel in order to see international cricket. You only need to spend one night in a hotel (in London this is a real issue, given the high prices), and you have time to do a little tourism or shopping, too. In August I plan to watch 3 successive days of test cricket, because I enjoy the strategic complexity and the tactical differences of the long form of the sport, but it will be expensive, and there will be significant lulls in the action to endure.