Centurion Test At SuperSports Park

I used a cricket tour as the backbone of my recent trip to South Africa, with the First Test of a 3 test series happening in Pretoria, or Centurion to be precise. A new test venue to me, and as it turned out, a happy hunting ground for the Aussies.

We, being the Waving The Flag group, stayed within walking distance to the ground, and managed to secure a great spot each day in the grandstand for the match.

The build up to this series, with South Africa being a power in cricket in recent times, and the Ashes win for the Aussies, was exciting. A chance to see how the battle between two very good, top-of-the-world sides at the moment would pan out.

The first session of Day 1 brought back horror memories of the Aussies in India, with the top order failing again, before Marsh and Smith joined forces out in the middle for a formidable and impressive partnership. They were in overnight, and both went on to get centuries, Marsh a solid 148. The Australians ended up with a happy 397 first innings total into the middle session of Day 2.

And then it was Mitchell Johnson's day! Cleaning up many of the threatening Saffa batsmen, rain ended the day's play with South Africa on 6/140. Mitch had 4! Wow! His Aussie Summer form continued to terrorise!

Day 2 also saw the girls on tour in pink, and being a Lunch break tradition at South African venues, we get to wander out onto the ground and have our traditional Chick Pink photo taken in front of the scoreboard.

I missed Day 4 for my next adventure, and of course several people later on said it was one of the best days of cricket they have ever been to - of course! Needless to say, the Mitchell Johnson show rolled on, and the Aussie's won by a whopping 281 runs. Great start to the series!