The spaces told the tale. In the vast stands, it was the spaces between the seats. The crowd was able to spread itself out luxuriously. The upper tiers were deserted. When audited, the total was just more than 30,000. It wasn't disastrous, but it was conspicuously sparser than the 80,000-plus who were at the Melbourne derby, all of three weeks ago. On Friday night, the numbers of stewards and security staff suggested that authorities were expecting another bumper turn-out. Many were idle. In the morning, an email from the sponsor had circulated, offering gratis tickets. Someone was worried already.
More Sport Videos
- Video duration
- 01:30
Stars into BBL final
- Video duration
- 01:12
Wimbledon: Day 5 Men's wrap
- Video duration
- 01:30
Euro 2016: Wales smashes Belgium
- Video duration
- 01:29
Panthers inflict more pain on Rabbitohs
- Video duration
- 01:12
Brad Arthur: 'It's very difficult'
- Video duration
- 00:51
Viktor Troicki goes on astonishing rant
- Video duration
- 01:29
Portugal scrape through against Poland
- Video duration
- 01:28
Stosur and Gavrilova sent packing
Stars into BBL final
Melbourne Stars defeated the Perth Scorchers by seven wickets to enter the Big Bash League grand final.
Why the ambivalence is tomorrow's question. Did all-day rain deter people? Was it that only one Melbourne team was in action? Cricket Victoria never was very keen on the two-team concept anyway, dividing loyalties and doubling costs? Is the boom over already? That seems unlikely. But in such a wham-bam game, suddenly three weeks seemed a long time. Were many in that 80,000 try-before-you-buy types, giving the fad of the day ago, but this night choosing to stay home to watch the tennis? Stay tuned for the market research.
Certainly, Cricket Australia has three balls up in the air at once and is still learning to juggle. Three weeks ago, with apologies to the West Indies, the BBL was the only game in town. Now, both teams had been significantly weakened by call-ups to the Australian team for a one-day series against India that itself was running out of puff. Peter had been robbed, but Paul remained unpaid. This was a called a final, but it felt like an addendum. Bit by bit, the lessons are being learned. There is a parallel in AFL. Often, big regular season fixtures outdraw finals. At a certain level, sport has become about the event, not the contest.
On the field, it was the same: the holes were telling. One counter-intuitive side-effect of the rise and rise of T20 cricket is the sanctification of the dot ball. In Test cricket, where there are only so many, only the accumulation counts. In one-day cricket, a maiden's worth of dots counts. In T20 cricket, each dot is precious. One will do the work of a spell in Test cricket. One in Dan Worrall's first over prompted the scoreboard to flash a rejoicing "dot ball" placard. The next ball, Marcus Harris lashed out anxiously, and Worrall had a wicket. Three overs later, ditto Michael Carbery. The pace of the night was established as surely as if measured by a stimp meter.
Of course, turning dots into runs and runs into boundaries is easier said than done. Insouciant Chris Gayle had deceived us all. The pitch this night was "sticky", militating against blithe strokemaking. The outfield was damp, and the MCG's boundaries are big. Only four sixes were hit for the night - one after Rob Quiney stepped over the rope while taking a catch. At least the MCG saved on fireworks.
The Stars bowlers, led by the unsung Worrall, stayed true to old-fashioned virtues, pitching on a length that had the batsmen in two minds. In T20, there is scarcely time to change it. Actually, nimble changes of mind are the key to T20. Accomplished as they are, Adam Voges and Michael Klinger strained against the leashes, but the dots piled up. The Scorchers lost five wickets in 22 balls trying in vain to escape the clutches. In all sports, finals play the damndest tricks on the mind. The scores in both semis were lower than average. This is also an AFL syndrome.
For the Stars, too, the going was tough. But they found something that had eluded the Scorchers, a spurt. Kevin Pietersen and Marcus Stoinis rattled up 31 in two overs, and the Stars were never behind the count again. They were also more inventive, running many twos. If dots are gold to bowlers, twos are for batsmen; they are the runs you make when nothing else is on offer. They blot the dots.
The Stars did not hit a boundary for seven overs mid-innings, but their impetus did not slacken. Pietersen produced minimal bludgeoning on the Gayle scale, but was otherwise the dotless wonder. He batted beautifully, if such a description is permissable in T20 cricket. For good measure, Stoinis played deliberately a leg-glance with the back of his bat, disorienting all, but gaining another run. The Stars cruised to victory.
In the final reckoning, it was not the spaces that mattered, but the filling: in the stands, 30,000 who can be trusted to be back for the final, and at the crease, the hulking form of Pietersen.