Heavy rain during the night and early morning promised a soggy pitch and an important toss to enable the winner to chose to bowl first. Both sides were clearly up for the game and were all fully present in their whites by 12.30. The captain duly lost the toss and, surprise, surprise, MCC were asked to bat. Although the weather was pleasant now, over 20°C and sunny intervals, the outfield was wet and batting second would be an advantage. Scoring was difficult for MCC openers, Weston and Wright and Wright fell in the eigth over with only 19 runs on the board to be replaced by Van Dalsum. He and Weston slowly accumulated runs with rare boundaries and, at the halfway stage of the innings, MCC were 68 for 1. The team talk had obviously been to be more aggressive after the break but with the score on 81, Weston went for 35 in the 23rd over to be replaced by Ferguson. He played his usual steady innings and remained 29 not out at the end after facing 46 deliveries and scoring only one boundary. Van Dalsum went for 33 in the 26th over with Sear and Goldsack following in the 27th and 30th overs respectively for only a few runs. When Clare came in he started in his usual swashbuckling manner and scored 20 off the first seven balls faced. He hit the penultimate ball of the match for what was at first signalled a boundary four. The batsmen returned to their respective ends and the umpire then revoked the boundary and called it a single run. The next ball was bowled without the batsmen changing ends and Clare was clean bowled. However the scorers pointed out to the umpires that since a single had been called Clare should not have been facing. This led to massive complaints from Serendib on the usual, familiar lines before, finally, play restarted with Ferguson facing the last ball which he diplomatically fended away. MCC had reached 197 for 5 in the 40 overs, a reasonable but not excessive score.
Serendib opened with Milan Fernando and Dushanta and were welcomed in virtually every over with a ball begging to be hit out of the ground which Milan did invariably. He was out caught when he was on 20 but, unfortunately to front foot no-ball. He finally went in the eighteenth over having scored 86 from 58 balls including two fours and eleven sixes. At the halfway stage of the innings Serendib were 134 for 2. The only bowler to excert any real pressure was Wright who finished with 2 for 9 from eight overs, including three maidens and Serendib finished with 200 for 4 in 33.1 overs winning very comfortable.
Weston LBW, 35
Wright caught, 8, 8 overs, 3 mdns, 2 wkts, 9 runs
Van Dalsum caught, 33,
Ferguson 29*, 1 over 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 9 runs
Sear caught, 4, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 39 runs
Goldsack LBW, 2,4 overs, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 42 runs, 1 catch
Clare 66*, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 20 runs, 1 catch
Rabbani DNB, 2.1 overs, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 20 runs
Blades DNB, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 1 wkt, 22 runs
Garner DNB, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 1 wkt, 34 runs
Fudge DNB, 1 over, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 5 runs
Shared by Clare and Wright both of whom gave MCC a chance of winning
