Despite the match being played in June, there was always the threat of the game being rained off; something that had already happened to two other games in the tournament.
England took a solid win after an impressive team performance, and they eventually won by 87 runs. However, the day was not without incident as the strong gales of up to 27 mph decided to make an appearance, along with five-minute showers.
New Zealand’s innings was delayed after a brief but heavy downpour, which brought out the covers and the groundsmen. And despite the rain eventually clearing up, the wind was still around to cause havoc.
The advertising boards that lined the boundary promoted companies such as Nissan and Emirates to the thousands attending, and to the millions who were watching on television. This line of boards was subsequently blown over, and due to the domino effect, all the boards toppled over.
Even though a team of 13-15 people spent the next quarter of an hour trying to force the boards back into line, the wind blew them all down again after five minutes.
It even entertained England player Alex Hales, who was stood on the boundary, watching the screens fall over one by one. This begs the question of whether cricket and sport need to research more weather-proof advertising.
In football, the advertising screens are there permanently, and are usually attached to the bottom of the stands, or a wall that lines the pitch.
At this particular One Day International, the boards were stood up using small stands to balance them on the ground. On any normal day, this type of screen and stand would be fine.
When the advertising boards fell, however, they took the boundary with them, and the match had to be halted briefly for staff to move them. This is because the exposed stands provided something dangerous to fall on for the cricketers playing.
Perhaps this time the Cardiff Wales Stadium (The SSE Swalec) should have considered more traditional ways of promoting their sponsors.
A printed banner would have provided a lot less pain and suffering for the staff, as well as the cricketers who had to stand and watch whilst the issue was being sorted.
