England v South Africa - T20 - 25th June 2017

Final T20 International


On Sunday 25^th June Shane had arranged tickets for a gang of us to go to the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff to see the final T20 cricket international between England and South Africa. 

The SWALEC Stadium from the ait

Match day ticket

I picked up Richard at 11.00am and we both then waited at my house to be picked up by Kevin and Christine.  They arrived bang on time at 11.30 and we headed off to Cardiff to meet the others in The Cricketers Arms in Cathedral Road.  Christine dropped us off and after making pick up arrangements left us to our own devices.  We settled in and bought a couple of drinks and waited for the others. 

The Cricketers, Cardiff

Inside The Cricketers

Gradually they all started drifting in so we arranged a group of tables outside where about 16 of us spent the time before moving into the stadium next door for the cricket.

Richard and Dan

A group of us including me and Kevin on the right. The guy pulling the face is Tom

Richard and Scott

A few of us had lunch here and it was really good for all of us bar Tom who sent two meals back before reluctantly taking delivery of the third one. When he started complaining to the nice waitress he got it right back from her. She was taking none of it from him and won the war of words hands down.

Our lovely waitress

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Soon we left to take our seats in the Stadium and settled down to watch the match.  

England batted first and soon lost Jason Roy but they batted particularly well to post a total of 181 for 7 in the allotted 20 overs.  This total was helped by some poor fielding and dropped catches by the visitors.

England batting

A dropped catch by South Africa

Newcomer David Malan batted particularly well in his first international and was rightly made man of the match.

Malan being congratulated by Alex Hales on reaching his 50

During the interval between innings we went down into the refreshment area and had a drink and a snack before heading back up to our seats.  

We had not realized it but the South Africa Innings had started before we reached our seats and indeed they had lost heir first wicket. England continued to bowl well particularly two other newcomers, Mason Crane and Tom Curran.  

South Africa in batting

In front of packed stands

South Africa were eventually bowled out for 162 leaving England winners by 19 runs and winners of the three-match tournament.

At the close we slowly made our way out of the ground amid the large crowd and made our way out onto Cathedral Road where Christine was waiting for us outside the Cricketers again.  Then we were on the road heading out of Cardiff on the way back to Newport.