yuppie wrote:80,000 for the first day of a boxing day test against NZ.
Why has CA waited 32 years for them to play a boxing day test. Expect to see them back more often now.
That NZ test must have been one of the first boxing day tests i attended. I remember the chants that used the go around the ground, with a very unfavorable one about Mr Hadlee.
He still got 10 wickets in the test and nearly gave NZ an amazing win.
I was also at that match Yuppie, although just for the last session and a half.
My very first taste of live Test Cricket - and what a doozie it was!
Last test of a three match series, Aus 1-0 up, NZ needing to win the test to retain the trophy, after their thumping of Aus the series before - what did Hadlee get from those 3 tests, 33 wickets? Incredible, and probably never to be repeated.
He was in just as good as form in this series and test as well. For the last 6 or so overs, NZ needed the one wicket - one of either Craig McDermott or, more likely, the classic bunny, Mike Whitney. Who had (I have just read) had managed the scores of 0, 0, 4, 0 and 0 so far in his test batting career.
The tension in the crowd was incredible - remember that Aus had not won a test series for over 4 years, and had not won one under Border's 6 series in charge.
Somehow the two of them held on, despite some fantastic bowling from Hadlee and Danny Morrison - and possibly a hometown decision that went against Morrison and for McDermott. The last over was from Hadlee and was bowled all to Whitney. The nerves of everyone at the ground were shot, and the excitement was so high.
It remains one of my favourite ever sport watching experiences.
A side note to this: I was working in my first role as head chef at the time, actually a position I shared with my very good mate Arni. We had been listening to the test on the radio, and agreed that one of us was going to go at the end of lunch and come back late. I won the toss, so off I went, by myself. I sat in the stands, next to a man who I recognised, and his two young sons. The man was Melbourne Journalist/Columnist John Hindle. I had a few chats with him about the cricket, but also about things I had read in his column earlier that week.
A decade or so later, that man became Arni's father in law - at the time, Arni was a few years off meeting his wife to be. A nice coincidence.