Hoggie meets the Hoggs!

Andy's awareness of how cricket works, enabled us to get newly released tickets for the 'sold out' BBL match at Manuka Oval! It's all to do with the seats behind the wickets. Apparently a large section is blocked off until they decide 5 days prior to the match which wicket they will use. Once they know that, the seats not affected are then released for sale. We managed to score two family tickets plus spread the word amongst friends who also manage to purchases tickets to!

So in the end there was a small crowd of us- our family, Cathy, Maki, Luca, Nana, Rob, Gareth and Jessica and Balir who was in town for work! The Melbourne Renegrades were up against the Sydney Thunder.

Andy, Ella and Katy arrived in time to see the WBBL. The Sydney Thunder won the toss and elected to bowl first. The Renegades were all out in 15 overs scoring a total of 68 runs. It wasn't all that easy going for the Thunder girls but they eventually got there losing 6 for 69. This win also saw the Thunder return to the top of the table. Ella nabbed some more autographs for her top!

Coming straight from work, I arrived at the game while the pitch was being readied for the BBL match. This match was to be a showdown with both Renegades and Thunder requiring a win to have any chances of making it into the next round. Thunder won the toss and elected to bowl.

The Renegades final score was 6 for 189 with an impressive 25 runs off the final over. We were being entertained by a very lively Renegades fan who was enjoying their batting efforts and the friendly banter with the Thunder fans. He was certainly enjoying the action as the Thunder batting order stumbled and so did he when he stood on his chair to celebrate only to topple onto Sandra. Luckily the seat took most of his weight. Andy wasn't too impressed and told him but he was too intoxicated to care. Thankfully security gave the guy a visit almost straight away and although we couldn't hear what was being said, he quietened down immediately. The kids were all a bit scared.

At one point we realised that Brad Hogg had not made the cut for the Renegades and was running around the boundary offering hydration and encouragement to his team mates as well as occasionally signing autographs. So Ella, Luca and Cathy decided to head down to the outer and try to get his autograph. But they did one better, when Cathy said they were all Hoggs and he thought that was cool and said that needs a photo then....

Anyway the game continued and at 4-51, it looked out of reach for Thunder however the youngster Nair put in a solid effort before being joined by Rohrer who smashed 28 run on the 13th over (6,4,4,4,6,4). Suddenly the tables had turned with the Thunder needing 55 runs from 36 balls.

The overs continued, runs kept trickling in and a few more wickets fell. It all came down to the last over with Thunder needing 14 runs. It was not to be with the Renegades claiming the final two wickets and Thunder finished all out for 180, 10 runs shy of a win. Unfortunately it also meant their BBL07 season was over.