Roving Reporter
by Lawrence Booth in Hamilton
Sunday, December 22, 2002

No one fainted or chewed through an umbrella handle, but a little corner of the Waikato held its breath. After yesterday's hedonistic free-for-all, today provided tension of a more refined sort. It was as if everyone had woken up with hangovers on a busy day.

Different crowds react to nail-biters in different ways. At Lord's, a polite murmur is punctuated by baritone cheers. At Mumbai, you need ear-mufflers. But at Hamilton things started with a hush and occasionally erupted into a respectful cheer.

This was partly because the ebb and flow was too great for either set of supporters to relax properly; partly because New Zealand cricket followers are an understated lot.

Only when Jacob Oram and the local boy Robbie Hart were cake-walking it near the end did a few rebels let their hair down. Even so, the cheer that greeted Hart's winning single to fine leg was more relief than triumphalism.

The grass banks here can give the illusion that people have paid to drink and sunbathe, but today everyone's eyes were fixed on the cricket. Even the Beige 13 contingent, who wear the sickly 1970s New Zealand one-day shirts, were on their best behaviour. Yesterday, they had heckled the revolving-door Indian batsmen via a loudspeaker. Today, they sat in a nervous huddle.

With both sides pushing for victory, the players' body language was fascinating enough in itself. After the early joy of getting rid of Lou Vincent, Indian hands switched between hips and head as Mark Richardson drove confidently in the V. But when an inspired Ashish Nehra found Richardson's edge, the spring in the step returned. Stephen Fleming looked concerned; Craig McMillan inscrutable.

"Come on Bhajji", shouted a pleading Indian voice as Harbhajan was brought on to bowl. By now every leg-bye was greeted with a ripple of applause, which became a wave when McMillan launched Harbhajan over long-on for six.

Fleming top-edged a pull and ripped his gloves off in frustration. McMillan was trapped in front and thundered off. John Wright signalled furiously from the entrance to the changing-rooms that Harbhajan should come on again: his bunny Scott Styris was walking out to bat. Gestures were flying around like confetti.

Parthiv Patel was flying too, and leapt full-length (all five foot of him) to pull off a stunning leg-side to get rid off Nathan Astle. The Indians went berserk and Patel was patted on the head like a long-lost little brother. But 12 runs in the final over before lunch swung things New Zealand's way again.

Every run was gold dust now, and when Sourav Ganguly performed a trademark dive over the ball to give Jacob Oram two to third man, he copped a cry of "Wake up, captain" from the crowd. The strain was starting to tell. Harbhajan allowed Oram an easy single to square leg, gathered the return, then hurled the ball to the ground in frustration. When Styris hammered the next ball to the cover boundary, you feared for Bhajji's health. A no-ball provoked tentative applause.

India were almost out of it, but Styris top-edged a cut to Patel, and hope sprung eternal: India needed four wickets, New Zealand 14 runs. Oram got four of them with a thumping drive through extra cover which beat the sprawling Sachin Tendulkar, and Sanjay Bangar conceded four overthrows with a do-or-die attempt to run out Hart, who had slipped.

The spectators began to relax – finally – and when Hart brought the scores level with a tuck for two through square leg off Nehra, people nodded with approval. Moments later it was all over. A cathartic cheer, a few pats on the back, and off home for some Sunday afternoon R&R.

The New Zealand dressing-room was a place of mixed emotions. Hart chatted affably about scoring the winning runs in the town he has lived in for ten years. McMillan slouched in the corner, reflecting on a ropey sequence of 69 runs in eight innings and a Test average that suddenly finds itself on the wrong side of 40. Richardson swigged his beer and stared into the distance. Styris digested the news that he had been dropped from the one-day squad.

Everyone was drained. It was only a short game, but it was an exhausting one. If the one-dayers are half as tense, we're in for quite a series.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd