ICC World Cup 2015 – New Zealand v Scotland: Thinking of My ‘Home Country’

While trying to keep up with the match between Ireland and West Indies yesterday, I found that the Kiwis would play the match against Scotland in Dunedin today. Indeed I decided to try the very best to report the match.

Brand new day came. It was a funny day yesterday for me. I had a very slow recovery from Valentine’s Day blue (not only getting no Japanese obligated chocolate but also not being offered any help when I felt dizziness at a shopping mall and was sitting on the floor on Saturday evening). But researching sports bars in Kyoto and Osaka seeking any opportunity to watch live footy help me feel better.

On the other hand, passionate of keeping up with sports alive. Ireland’s upset over West Indies is brilliant! But footy world had some bad news. Melbourne’s new recruit Christian Petracca was injured and will not play any game in 2015 and Carlton Ruckman Matthew Kreuzer was also injured with possible four to six- week off. Sorry for the Demonland and Bluebaggers.

Here is my timeline of my exciting day with beloved Black Caps. All time is shown in my time (Japan is two hours behind to AEDT – Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart – and four hours behind to New Zealand).

6:50am   I have just got out the shower. Trying to get live stream of New Zealand’s Radio Sport for the game on TuneIn App. But the radio station was not on. Later I found Live Sport, another NZ radio station.

7:00am   Live Sport news reported that Black Caps won the toss but chose to field first. What a surprise.

7:05am   The radio program was talking about greyhound racing in Dunedin. I was disappointed. Then I visited Radio Sport’s website on my Android and reached Listen from Overseas. Attempting to listen, but it was not working. I made an enquiry to the radio station for solution.

7:20am   I was cooking my lunch taking to the employment program place and checked with the live score on cricinfo App. It read Scotland 12-2. Oh the Kiwis have already got three wickets!

7:23am   The score was 12-3. Wow, Scotland started slowly.

7:50am   I finished cooking. My lunch was stir fried vegetable with steamed rice. It was a healthy food, but not sure which was better – Healthy Cats meals cooked by Geelong players or my one. Checking the cricket App, the score read at 22-4.

Getting ready to go to the employment program place and checking scores which were read at 38-4 (8:00 am) and 44-4 (8:10am). Scotland got runs well now.

8:50am   Getting off a train, I checked the App with the score. Scotland got 46 more runs and no wicket. The score was 90-4.

9:00am   I was able to tune in Radio Sport on the computer, but I was not able to keep up well with the match as writing an email to my friend. Commentators urged Black Caps that they needed to get more wickets.

9:05am   Scotland’s score was 115-4.

9:15am   After having sent an email, I checked the score board. It read 122-6.

10:00 am Before starting to comment back to my previous posts, I checked the ESPN cricinfo website with the score. Scotland finished batting with 142 and New Zealand were 18-0.

It was hard to multi task for me as always. Commenting back was my important task and what I would love to do. Keeping up with the game through radio while writing was very hard for me, unfortunately.

10:20 am NZ 47-1.

10:30 am I heard that the Kiwis and Scots were about to go to the lunch break. The score board read NZ 63-2.

11:19 am New Zealand lost a wicket. A bad start for Black Caps after the lunch break. Boo! NZ 66-3

11:32 am Kiwis got a four. Good on you boys!

11:45 am NZ 106-3.

11:55 am I caught up with writing previous details. Huh!! In the last ten minutes, Kiwis lost another wicket. No-oh! The score was 109-4. Now it was lunch break for the passionate cricket following Yoshi. See you soon.

12:24 pm Tuning on Radio Sport again, but I only heard an interview. I found out that the game was over. The final score was Scotland: 124 and New Zealand: 146-7. New Zealand won by 3 wickets (with 151 balls remaining). Well done Kiwis!!!

12:49 pm Not related to the cricket, but I found that Kreuzer’s injury was worse than it had been previously reported. It is frustrating not only for him but also for Princes Park.

1:17 pm   I started watching the match highlight video on the ICC World Cup website. At the beginning, Trent Boult (NZ) bowled well with good position, just in front of batsmen. New Zealand got two wickets in a row after Scotland got one run. Good start for Kiwis. Once again at 12-2, Tim Southee (NZ) bowled at low and Kyle Coetzer (Scotland) got wicket and then Preston Mommsen (Scotland) got wicket by hitting wicket tee. Another two wickets in a row! At 90-4, Matt Machan hit the ball towards the commentator box. Scotland needs to release frustration of slow start, I reckon. At 109-4, Machan hit the ball but was caught by the skipper Brendon McCullum who dived into the ball. It is brilliant! Later Richard Berrington (Scotland) hit the ball backwards to the stand, but it was caught. Last Scotland’s three wickets were made by hitting wicket tee.

Huh! It is hard for me to detail analysis because of inexperience and less knowledge of players. But it is not stressful. I need to allow myself to get use to do and will improve match by match.

1:45 pm   It was time to see how Black Caps were batting. Martin Guptill hit the ball that was going close to Brendon McCullum (another batsman). At 10-0, Guptill hit the ball backwards and got a four-run. Kiwis had a good start that was opposed to Scotland. But sadly after getting 18 runs, Black Caps were caught a wicket. The batsman was Guptill. I was impressed with New Zealand’s batting skills. They moved towards seeking great position to hit the ball and swung with a big movement to score more runs. But at 48-1, the Kiwi skipper was caught. At 66-2, the ball was flying high after being hit, but sadly a fielder caught the ball. Another out for Black Caps. After seeing some nice batting, at 119-5, a Scottish fielder seemed to catch a ball, but dropped off. Kiwis were lucky. Sadly I did not see much positive batting for Kiwis, but at 142-7, the ball was just passing over the Scottish fielder’s head and went back to close to the boundary line that brought Black Caps four runs to win the match.

Well done, Kiwis!