Hot paper clip and toenail treatment

Day Three

I woke this morning to a lot of noise outside. It was either raining very heavily, a tidal wave was coming, or there was a gale coming through. It was the later and that meant a tough day at the office for me. I bowl into the wind, that’s one of the jobs I have made my own. It is something I have prided myself on and if you’ve read a lot of my blogs you’ll know this; if you haven’t; when I was starting out for Wellington I picked the worst job in the team and I made myself good at it. There’s always a vacancy for the worst job in the work force. Doing that job has meant tough days at the office, but it does mean that I’m at the office, and I really do like my office!

I was 2 not out overnight and was looking forward to sticking around with the bat as long as possible. I’ve made a goal for myself every time I go out to bat to face 50 balls. If I do that the partnership should be up around the 50-run mark; even if I’ve only scored 10. Batting with Bondy was going to be fun, we were going to take every run on offer, and I knew he was pretty keen on hitting a couple of big balls! I was pretty happy too that Asif and Gul were not at full pace; they looked pretty tired from the day before.

I nicked a four and got a cover drive away off Gul. I was premeditating a little with that ball. I was guessing it was going to be full, and if it was, I was going to hit it as hard as I could. I had the wind behind me so if I didn’t quite get it, if it was in the air, it should still, hopefully, carry over the straight fielders. It was too wide to hit straight, so I just flung the bat at it, and it came off ok; sweet.

My first bowling spell was eight overs before lunch and then three straight after. Eleven overs of the first 14 to be bowled into that wind that day. It was hard work, and I was going well. I felt good, my rhythm good and my speeds were right up there. I felt like I was really doing my job, I was keeping the runs down so we could attack from the other end, and I was also making life tough for the batters that were in. The ‘into-the-wind’ role is often measured by how many wickets are taken at the other end, and in my first spell there was three; I was doing my job.

But that was where it ended. I came back for my second spell and I was average. I leaked more runs than we all wanted; I couldn’t keep things tight and quiet from my end. We went to tea and I was pretty pissed at myself for that spell. The bothers Akmal were together and playing with freedom. Umar, on debut and dropped (a toughie), was really taking the counterattack to us, and it was paying off. Kamran was hanging with him and also scoring well. I got an opportunity from the downwind end, I was really looking forward to this spell, a chance to let loose, to bowl fast and express myself. I still have to bowl well, keep things tight and build pressure. I did none of the mentioned. Absolutely none of them! I got smashed. It wasn’t good enough at all and, after my poor spell into the wind previously, I was feeling pretty average. My first 11 overs went for around 30, my next 10 went for 70. Not good enough. The Akmals batted well, not going to take that away from them at all. I just didn’t bowl well enough and it meant they got away from us. We probably could have bowled Pakistan out for around 200 had we done things as good as we started.

Bondy’s return was brilliant. He had four wickets at the end of the day. He bowled fast, really fast, after lunch and picked up three wickets in 10 balls. A game changing spell, and had Flynn of taken a screamer at gully, it would have been a four-wicket spell and Pakistan would have been six down for around 90. Game on!

Eight down at the end of the day, we’re still in a great position, pick the two wickets up cheaply in the morning and rest up for a massive fourth-innings charge to win the match.

Day Four

Bondy and Tom (Chris Martin) opened up and it was Tom who picked up the first wicket. We were off the park when Bondy picked up his fifth wicket. It has been a brilliant come back and a pleasure to share the field with him again. Yesterday Bondy did the hot paperclip through the toe nail trick to release the pressure that had built up because of the constant banging on the end of the boot. It was hurting a lot and I know how much this hurts, both the banging on the end of the boot when smashing down on it at delivery and then the paperclip through the nail. He was at it again when we came off again today. His big toe is a mess and he’s bowled through some pain to get the first-innings job done. I too needed to do the same, but I was staying clear of the paperclip this time. That just hurts too much. I sourced a very small drill bit and between thumb and finger I drilled my toe nail until I reached the blood beneath to release the pressure. It’s not a nice feeling and it doesn’t look to good but it does make things a bit better.

Guptill was doing some short-ball work in the nets before warm ups, under arms from five or six meters, and he wore one above his right eye. I’d normally say he was silly for doing that without a helmet on, but I was doing it the other day, so who am I to talk! I didn’t wear one though! So with his eye a bit puffy and vision maybe not quite 100% when he and McIntosh opened up for us. Two down with no runs on the board, Guptill and Flynn back in the shed; and I called our first innings the worst start possible. Taylor scored his second 50 of the match in a partnership with Mac and we started to look better until a mix up left Taylor run out; really not what we needed.

We lost wickets reasonable regularly from there and at stumps, drawn early because of bad light again, we are 244 in front with two wickets in hand. Elliott and I head back out there tomorrow to put as many runs on the board as we can before bowling for the win.

The rules around ‘light’ have changed. In the past the umpires offer the option to the batters to ‘go’ or ‘stay’. Not anymore, it is their decision alone. The batters get no option at all and in our camp that has caused a little annoyance. We have lost a wicket in both innings just (one ball) before the umpires have taken us off for bad light. And yes, it does play a big part; it was very hard to pick up the one ball I faced in the first innings and the two I faced tonight. The second ball I faced tonight I didn’t really pick up till it was about half way down. I was very happy it wasn’t a short one!

We’ve got some work to do tomorrow, we need as many runs as we can muster and then we are going to need a huge effort from the four bowlers to take the 10 wickets we’ll need for the win. Whatever happens, it’s going to be a great day’s viewing and I hope to either see you at the ground, sitting in front of your TV, listening on the radio or following it on Cricinfo.

I’ll catch you on Sunday, I won’t write tomorrow night, hopefully I’ll be celebrating (mildly) a very special Test victory.