NZ grab one back

The 4th women's international T20 between the Southern Stars (Australia) and the White Ferns (NZ) took place on Wednesday at the ANZ Stadium on the outskirts of Sydney.

I was unable to make it to this match and the weather was none too good either.

So I resorted to recording the Channel Nine broadcast and then watching it back later.
Just as well as I see that Channel Nine have maintained last year's high standard of awfulness. Just imagine what it must be like to watch live tv and whilst a close runout decision is being reviewed by the tv umpire you suddenly switch into an advert. After the ad you are into the new batsman receiving their first ball. Channel Nine seem to excel in cutting people off mid sentence to show an advert that has already been broadcast thirty times before during this one match. Luckily my Tivo lets me fast forward a lot of this stuff. Channel Nine production staff do seem very amateur.

Anyway, the outcome was that NZ bowled very well and the Australian team that had won the toss and chosen to bat in the rain shortened match did not manage much of a total (92). The White Ferns then came in for their 18 overs and exceeded the required number of runs with five balls remaining. NZ had won this one making it 3-1 to Australia in the five match series.

One of the Nine commentators kept saying how sad it was that the Southern Stars had been beaten in the first match on tv. He seemed totally unaware that the previous three matches had also been on terrestial tv.

The last match is from Melbourne on Friday and my Tivo is setup to deal with the worst that Channel Nine can come up with.

Peewit

Watching cricket with Channel Nine

This is probably the worst experience of your life.
It is however a good advertising opportunity. As this is an ODI, each side will play 50 overs (as long as they do not lose all their wickets) and Nine show adverts between each over. So that means that you may see the same advert 100 times during the match. If you think that is irritating, then it gets worse as you will not see all of the match as they switch to the news three overs before the end of the first innings. Add to this adverts during the overs, interviews off pitch during the overs, endless replays during the overs none of which indicate that they are replays and you get the feel for just how bad it is. I am sure that they must have employed an expert on how to totally destroy any sense of enjoyment when watching cricket. Thank goodness I will see some proper cricket coverage when I go back to the UK for summer.

Peewit