England v Australia in the first ever T20 international in this country at Southampton - the first fixture in the 2005 Ashes summer. England batted first and made a decent but not invincible score of 179 from 20 overs. The ground was packed with a capacity crowd of around 12,000 on a blazing hot June evening. A warm up match between two all-stars/veterans type teams had taken place with the apparent aim of getting plenty of people into the ground early and not having everyone arrive at once, but instead of people going straight from work for the main event it appeared most had just taken the whole day off work for an all-day drinking session!
There was a real party atmosphere that reached fever pitch as Australia's innings totally disintegrated. A bloke sitting just in front of me went to the beer tent with their score at 20/0 and by the time he returned they were 21/4 ! shortly afterwards they were 28/7 and it was all over. (They eventually finished 79 all out giving England victory by precisely 100 runs.)
This match really set the tone for the whole summer and I think it was the day that made the England team really believed they could regain the big prize for the first time in almost twenty years.
A few of the cameo moments I recall were as follows: Brett Lee bowling breathtakingly fast in the early overs. Geraint Jones, opening the batting, hitting Lee straight back for a four that nearly took the bowler's head off - to say it virtually parted his hair is not an exaggeration. Andrew Strauss frustrating the Aussie bowlers by stepping right across his stumps to flip balls from outside off stump over the top of the bails to the fine leg boundary. Kevin Pietersen dropping several straightforward catches! Jon Lewis doing the bulk of the damage to the Aussie innings with four wickets on what I think may have been his first international in any format, although I'm not certain of that. And one of the Aussie fielders (I think it was Michael Clarke) making a series of blunders as he was moved around the boundary from one position to another and the ball just kept "following" him! Of course he got a fully sympathetic and understanding rsponse from the home crowd!
There was a real party atmosphere that reached fever pitch as Australia's innings totally disintegrated. A bloke sitting just in front of me went to the beer tent with their score at 20/0 and by the time he returned they were 21/4 ! shortly afterwards they were 28/7 and it was all over. (They eventually finished 79 all out giving England victory by precisely 100 runs.)
This match really set the tone for the whole summer and I think it was the day that made the England team really believed they could regain the big prize for the first time in almost twenty years.
A few of the cameo moments I recall were as follows: Brett Lee bowling breathtakingly fast in the early overs. Geraint Jones, opening the batting, hitting Lee straight back for a four that nearly took the bowler's head off - to say it virtually parted his hair is not an exaggeration. Andrew Strauss frustrating the Aussie bowlers by stepping right across his stumps to flip balls from outside off stump over the top of the bails to the fine leg boundary. Kevin Pietersen dropping several straightforward catches! Jon Lewis doing the bulk of the damage to the Aussie innings with four wickets on what I think may have been his first international in any format, although I'm not certain of that. And one of the Aussie fielders (I think it was Michael Clarke) making a series of blunders as he was moved around the boundary from one position to another and the ball just kept "following" him! Of course he got a fully sympathetic and understanding rsponse from the home crowd!
(tho i wasn't born for the arsenal one tbf) did you watch the re-run of it on...i think eurosports the other day?
