Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Twenty20 cricket has grabbed Sideline Sid's attention at the moment with the Black Caps and South Africa going head to head in the last week.

There was only one word to describe the Black Caps gifting the game to South Africa on Wednesday night at Eden Park – BUGGER.

While New Zealand eeked out a win in the first game – South African master blaster Richard Levi took the game by the scruff of the neck on Sunday night.

He was in the zone, and simply controlled his side's attack with his relentless pursuit of the Seddon Park boundaries.

No matter that the commentators were talking about short boundaries compared to other grounds – even a bulldozer wouldn't have stopped Levi in Hamilton.

Sideline Sid was at Seddon Park a few years ago when Craig McMillan did the same to Australia.

Chasing a huge Aussie total of 346, the Black Caps were in desperate trouble at 44/4.

Enter McMillan who simply swatted his side to victory.

He blasted 13 fours and five sixes on the way to a Kiwi win.

McMillan smashed his century off just 67 balls, before being bowled for 117.

In the first innings Australian batsman Mathew Hayden set the tone of the encounter, with a big knock of 181 including 10 sixes.

On Saturday, the all action version of the great game will be on display at Fergusson Park, when the Baywide Twenty20 competition resumes.

In the first round, Rotorua Central set the smash and bash Baywide competition alight, when they blasted 205 for the loss of three wickets, providing Baywide champion of champions Mount Maunganui with a comprehensive defeat.

Central came from a modest position on the BOP Cup standings to take no prisoners on the way to better than 10 runs an over victory.

With four games in the next two weekends, the Baywide T20 is wide open.

With three wins apiece Cadets, Greerton and Central sit at the top of the standings, with Te Puke and Mount Maunganui lurking just off the pace.

The great leveller in the Baywide T20 is that the competition is played when the Bay rep players are absent for their club sides, on Bay of Plenty representative duty.

The matches to watch at Fergusson Park this Saturday are Cadets' match-up with Te Puke, and Greerton against Mount Maunganui.

Both Cadets and the Mount will be without several key players (on rep duty) while Te Puke and Greerton are virtually untouched by rep commitments.

One thing that has always surprised me is the support (or lack of) that the Bay of Plenty representative cricket team receives.

Thousands upon thousands dress up in Bay colours and arrive in droves to follow the Steamers each time they play in Rotorua or Baypark.

However, at Bay of Plenty representative cricket matches, the seagulls and the occasional dog usually outnumber the spectators.

Sideline Sid is calling all Western Bay dedicated and casual cricket followers to duty.

This Saturday and Sunday and the following weekend, the Bay senior men's team will be involved in a couple of dogfights at the BOP Cricket Oval at Blake Park – with the reward for success, to lift aloft the Fergus Hickey Rosebowl in triumph.

The defeat of competition leader Counties last weekend has split the ND minor association championship wide open.

The Bay side sit just off the lead and need to comprehensively defeat Poverty Bay this weekend, before facing arch enemies Hamilton the following weekend.

Coincidently the Hamilton match is 80years to the month since Bay of Plenty played their first representative cricket match.

Their opponents were South Auckland, who were essentially a Waikato team, with the match played in Hamilton.

Seeya at the Bay Cricket Oval at Blake Park