SCG Test, Australia v India – Day One: Doing Multi-tasks on Tuesday

The Test Cricket between Australia and India was about to start at Sydney Cricket Ground.

SCG had dramas in 2014 – devastating one in cricket and a coach’s anger issue in footy.

Phillip Hughes’ incident on November 25 at the state match between NSW and South Australia is hard to be described for me. Sadly he left the world two days later. Hughes was only 25 – too young to end his life.

AFL’s long serving coach, Mick Malthouse (Carlton) unleashed his anger towards Channel 7’s commentator Cameron Ling (former Geelong captain) at the half time break and tried to hide from the TV cameras at the coaching box with a piece of paper at Round 17 last year. He also created a drama with a journalist Samantha Lane working for Channel 7 as well as the Age newspaper at post-match press conference.

Dramas can happen in sports. They are part of sports. But I wish I could only see positive ones for the Australian cricket team at SCG.

Before the match, Michael Clarke made a tribute to Hughes in a video clip. I felt emotion indeed. Clarke shows us how passionate of playing cricket Hughes was and how he loved his family.

In the morning today, I went to see a doctor due to sore back. Their consultation starts at nine but I always be there around eight to avoid a long queue. My multi-tasks started at the waiting room with listening to 1116 SEN to get updated match reports and holding Footy Almanac 2014 to read. When the radio is on the cricket mode, I stopped reading and grabbed a piece of paper and pen. Then I typed details on my Android. And my sportaholic actions had to be interrupted when I was called by clinic staff. Oh I wished not to be there. Ugh!!

The first cricket update was reported at 8:08am here in Sapporo, Japan (10:08am Eastern Daylight Saving Time). Tony Schibeci and Graham ‘Smokie’ Dawson discussed if Mitch Johnson who had got a hamstring injury was taking a risk or not. Also they talked about Steve Smith’s performance as well as made compliments on Shane Watson and Nathan Lyon. I thought that it would be raining for a few days in Sydney but seemed to misunderstand. Later I checked with Sydney’s weather and learned that it would be partly cloudy today and possible morning shower for tomorrow. It is hard for me to get a lot of information for only a few minutes.

At 10:40am, positive comment was made by Smokie who said that Australia had a bright start with 14 runs (then the team had extra 4 runs during the update). After having listened to the update, I checked the live score site but it only said that Australia had got 10 runs. I realised that there was a time lag. Reporters can say the score live on TV and radio, but journalists have to type the number into a computer and/or mobile devices. So it would take minute(s) to come up on the screen with the score.

While news update was covered at 11.00am, Australia marked 45 runs without wicket. Brilliant!

After seeing the doctor and having a physiotherapy session, I arrived at the employment program place around 10:45 am (local time; 12:45 pm AEDT). I started to catch up typing as well as checking scores. It is a hard job, but I am not too stressed because I love writing and sports. Meanwhile the score was Australia 0-156.

As the Australian players enjoyed lunch, I watched a highlight video on cricket.com.au. Chris Rogers has done a brilliant job – he had made his fifth 50 in a row. I have watched his beautiful batting. He stretched his arms towards left to bat a ball and the ball rolled through fielders. Also his great technique batting the ball to roll between the wicket and another batsman is wonderful!

And now it was about midday here (2:00pm AEDT) and my lunch break. The live cricket.com.au score board said Australia 0-187. Bye for now, Aussies – sorry…

Back to keeping eyes and ears on the match, I heard the sound clip of Rodgers caught a wicket on SEN around 2:40 pm. About five minutes later, Smokie reported updates, but I just learned how many runs batmen had as well as 26 minutes left to the tea break. The live score said Australia 1-200 around 2:50pm.

At 3:18pm, I was about to respond to some emails regarding other Footy Almanac articles. Before it, I visited cricket.com.au. The live score board said 2-242. Aussies were caught with another wicket. No-o-oh!!

About thirty minutes later, the score board said 2-249. Was the game playing slow at the moment?

But the score board at 3:57pm said 2-270.

As well as cricketers, I had a tea break around 4:00pm Sydney time. After that, I started seeking English magazines in Japan to seek potential employment. I found several ones and contacted the one which was on the top hit on Google.

At 4:33pm, I read the live score at 2-309.

Meanwhile my Essendon diehard mate tagged me on Facebook with a hilarious video entitled with ‘How We Coped With The AFL Off Season.’ It is available on YouTube and I suggest you to have a look!

At 5:15pm, I started watching the second session highlight video and was impressed with David Warner’s batting form at the score of 0-152. He reversed his position from left to right and swung the bat to hit the ball. The ball was rolled behind him. What a beauty! Then at 0-187, Warner’s hitting ball was delivered to the stand. His batting is so amazing!

After the program hour finally was over and it was time to check cricket highlights again. I watched a news video and was impressed at what Warner has done. He hit 63 runs not-out: what Hughes achieved on November 25 last year. Then Warner who passed milestone today kissed on the pitch.

Also another match report showed that the skipper Steve Smith did well with batting and his batting once went straight to the stand. Meanwhile, Watson showed more confidence and the term of ‘aggressive’ was used to describe Warner’s actions. But all good!

At the end of the day, Australia’s score was 2-348.

No drama was seen at SCG today but keeping up with the match helped me spend a lot of energy.

Things I learned today are:

1. Doing multi-tasks is not so bad, but I need to be flexible more to have less stress and guilt.
2. It is better to have a room as well as a few ‘me times’ where and when I will not be interrupted while listening to radio and/or watching online videos.
3. I am still inexperienced in following cricket games and indeed need to watch matches properly to report beauty of the sport.

Thank you for your patience with my inexperienced cricket reports. I am willing to learn new skills and to write better match reports.

 

* Please note that times shown in this match report are Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time (AEDT) unless indicated.