The crowd begged for a Cairns wicket. When none came they pleaded for a six to sail from Eden Park. When none of those came either, they knew that Cairns would save his fairytale exit for the ‘bowl off’ but alas Cairns missed the stumps by a country mile.

In the end it mattered little. Cairns was given a heroes send off that his contribution to New Zealand cricket fully justified.

The game though was interrupted on several occasions by people invading the pitch. Some clothed, some naked, all I suspect drunk as summer skunks. All bar one were male. The brave lass that stripped off and streaked was dealt a harsh hand by a security guard who was clearly trying out for a place in the All Blacks rugby squad. She was tackled fiercely by the guard who was comfortably three times her size and she crashed to the ground with quite a sickening thump.

Some will say she deserved what she got for streaking. Some will say the guard showed shocking judgement in his tackling of such a slight woman. Whatever the opinion, it made for very disturbing viewing when the poor girls head ricocheted off the hard Eden Park turf. I suspect her streaking days are done.

The Bowl Off was unfortunately the highlight of what was a sub standard Twenty20 game from a batting perspective at least. And even then, it was a highlight only because so many attempts to hit the stumps from both teams went comically wide.

It was a bizarre end to an emotion filled night, that by its sheer oddness ensured that for those who were there, Chris Cairns’s last international game will live long in the memory.

I’m glad I was there.

The bowl off sounds hillarious, I'm dying to watch any highlights on telly if I can catch them, even though I have to admit at the same time that the idea of a bowl off in the first place, and the eventual score line of 3-0 in NZ's favour, sounds distinctly footballish.

So why a bowl-off. Why not a six-hitting contest, or a longest-throw competition or a fastest-man runoff. The whole idea disgusts me. Having overtime - 5 more overs, ten? one? - in Twenty20 cricket sounds a little better given that we absolutely must continue with Twenty20.

That question sprung to my mind as well Jay, but apart from the whole outing sounding distinctly footballish (akin to a penalty shoot out) I didn't find anything inherently wrong with the proposal. The very fact that only 3 out of god knows how many tries from either side managed to hit the wicket might actually tell you why NZ and West Indian bowlers some times struggle for consistency at the test level.

And on a different point, why do we have a bowl off, understandable if you're playing a World Cup final or something, but this is certain nostolgia about the game being tied, why lose that, especially for a one-off game like this.

I don't know if many Twenty20 games will live long enough in the memory to command any nostalgia.

The bowl off seemed an OK idea on the night and the crowd enjoyed it. On reflection a batting focussed method of deciding the result may have been more entertaining but honestly, who cares, it's Twenty20!!!