Tag: Merv

Before Scott Boland had even bowled a ball this Boxing Day Test, the MCG’s iconic Bay 13 was ecstatic with his presence.

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Among those cheering on the local quick’s arrival were a pair of men dressed as banana and a fan wearing a Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL shirt. Both were yelling with joy among the plethora of green and gold paraphernalia around them.

Boland, a local Victorian, has only played a dozen Test matches, but is evidently treasured as much as legends like Merv Hughes and the late Shane Warne — with the latter duo well-renowned for their on and off-field antics.

As Boland began warming up in the second session of Day 2 at the ‘G (in between signing autographs), a local battler stood up proudly to cheers of: ‘Skull, skull, skull, skull!’.

He hadn’t gotten out of his chair because Kerry ‘Skull’ O’Keeffe was in the vicinity though — he was just thirsty. Really thirsty.

The Australian public’s love affair with Bay 13 (and beer) began way before this year’s Boxing Day Test. In fact, 36 years ago, it was Hughes who introduced the world to the now-famous side stretch down at fine leg.

It is an image etched in the memory of so many loyal cricket fans and undoubtedly left those who used to mimic the menacing quick as sore as the local favourite once sobriety kicked back in the following day.

Eleven years after Hughes’ antics, legend leg-spinner Warne was forced to approach the aforementioned section… in a helmet.

Midway through an ODI against England, so brutal was the Bay 13 crowd, that Warne (wrongly) feared he could get hit by his own home crowd.

Warne, who was at first sitting in the change rooms while chaos unfolded, was remarkably called upon by then-England captain Alec Stewart to come out and stop the crowd before they caused any serious harm.

‘Warnie’ strolled out to the middle, borrowed the helmet of batter Mark Waugh who was at the crease, and politely pleaded with the crowd to tone it down a notch and stop throwing rubbish at rival bowler Darren Gough. It was as simple as that.

Fast forward to 2024, and it’s now Boland who rules the roost in their presence. And there’s no doubt that Bay 13 loves “Boland because he’s a Victorian”.

Not that he ever needed winning over, but it was his iconic spell of 6/7 on Test debut against England in 2022 that cemented his current status, alongside his loveable and humble personality.

Now playing in his second Boxing Day Test, on the back of a Josh Hazlewood calf strain, the cult hero bowled well for his first spell of the day, conceding just 15 runs from his eight-over shift.

And in the final session, even debutant Sam Konstas got the crowd stretching, cheering and all-in-all riled up as his teammates charged in on an ever-flattening MCG pitch.

All the anticipation and all the theatre led up perfectly to Boland’s first wicket of the match, where he nicked off Indian veteran Virat Kohli less than 20 minutes before stumps on Day 2.

Unsurprisingly to say the least, Bay 13 — along with the rest of the Melbourne crowd — erupted into hysterics as Alex Carey held on to the regulation catch and further renditions of Boland-themed chants ensued.

Those antics resurfaced merely minutes later when Boland removed nightwatchman Akash Deep for a 13-ball duck, courtesy of a ripping catch at leg gully by Nathan Lyon.

Boland ended the day with exquisite figures of 2/24, with the whole of the sporting Colosseum clapping him in to bowl for the last half an hour of play.

And in what was a full circle moment, he was greeted with waves, cheers and whistles by the MCC Members at the other end of the ground after bowling the penultimate over of Day 2. The energy around the whole ground was beyond contagious.

The most vocal of fans in the MCG’s Bay 13 may no longer be quite as rogue but the infamous section still holds the same passion that it always has with its beer snakes, endless chants and extravagant dress-ups.