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MANCHESTER - Manchester awoke with the mother of all hangovers while the New Zealand cricketers felt they'd hardly slept a wink.
Even though they watched Manchester United's gripping Champions League penalty shootout win over Chelsea from the sanctuary of their central city hotel, then retired to their rooms,
there was no escaping the post-match frenzy.
"You could stay in your room and get amongst it, that's how loud it was. There wasn't too much sleep last night," captain Daniel Vettori said.
A staunch Liverpool supporter, Vettori admitted he his teammates were neutral on the outcome but still glued to the drama on television from Moscow. Scott Styris, the only Manchester United follower in the team, doesn't join the side until next month's one-day series.
"I'm not a fan of either side so I sat back and watched a good game of soccer and felt sorry for anyone who had to take a penalty at the end," Vettori said.
Red-shirted fans in the packed pub opposite the team hotel poured onto the streets afterwards, a common scene across the city. Car horns blared most of the night and fans chanted.
Some roads were closed and riot police kept a close watch as groups of fans embraced and danced in the streets, many twirling their replica shirts and high-fiving nonplussed neutral onlookers.
It was far more good-natured than a week earlier when angry Glasgow Rangers fans rampaged through Manchester's streets after their Uefa Cup final defeat, clashing with police and destroying parked cars.
It meant no big screen coverage in the central city last night to avoid a repeat, so pub space was at a premium.
Actually finding a spot to watch the game was a battle, with pubs either full 30 minutes before kickoff or making entry ticket-only. Some of the New Zealand players stayed in their rooms to watch the match when their hotel bar put up the "house full" sign.
The streets were deserted just before kickoff, with Exchange Square littered with empty beer cans and vodka bottles as fans crowded inside.
Beer was sold in plastic bottles, just in case, and some locals didn't make it to fulltime, assisted out by bouncers during the second half as a day's drinking took its toll.
When United star Ronaldo opened the scoring, patrons in one pub got a generous alcopop/beer shower as the crowd erupted, a precursor to the fulltime frenzy after the shootout was decided.
The morning after, sleepy Mancunians stumbled to work but the city streets took time to fill up. As the Black Caps trained at Old Trafford on the eve of the second test against England, the chants went up again outside as delirious United fans began filing down the road to their team's base, ready to give them a heroes' welcome home.
- NZPA
