Thursday, October 31, 2013

New first class season, new ground


It's been a while since I posted but then I've been travelling and haven't followed cricket as much as I would normally have hoped to.

But today I went to a new first class cricket venue for the opening day of the Sheffield Shield season. 
Gliderol Stadium is known to many South Australians as Glenelg Oval, home of the Glenelg Aussie Rules and District Cricket clubs. It's drawing a long bow to call it a stadium as there are only two smallish stands, with a couple of rows of seating around a reasonably sized (ie enough to allow the occasional three to be run) playing area enclosed by a white picket fence.

I didn't arrive until tea when South Australia looked shaky at. 4/170 or so,  Yet this was an improvement on 4/101, which turned out to be the Queensland high water mark. Tom Cooper 165*/206b (7x6, 18x4) and Johan Botha 59*/148b (4x4) have added 193 against a steady but far from menacing Bulls attack. Thanks to Cooper's masterly hand the Redbacks are comfortably placed yet far from dominant at 4/296 from 96 overs.

Although Queensland suffered from injuries, notably captain James Hopes who was not in the eleven, they still fielded a good attack which nevertheless seemed to run out of puff in the final session. Perhaps they had celebrated their win in the Ryobi Cup on Sunday too well.

Here is a picture I took of the ground. Yes, it was sunny but a stiff breeze off the sea kept the temperature down.