Arunachalam stars against MCC and Parlour gives the lie to being unable to bowl
It was scheduled as the needle match between Tegernsee and MCC to decide the series for the 2014 season. However Tegernsee put the kybosh on that by emailing on Wednesday morning advising they had only four players and asked for suggestions. Get another seven players quickly was probably the most printable of the various ideas occurring to MCC organisers Blades and Sestan. They worked devotedly and were able to get three players from BCC and we gave them another four, Arunachalam who had volunteered earlier together with Gattinger and Kulanagayam, the two newest members, as well as Shashi Gaikwad who turned up and wants to join us. His girlfriend also turned up later to enjoy her first match at the Hirschanger and freeze to death – welcome to summer cricket in Germany
With the teams sorted out – TCC actually only brought three players as JET had an argument with his motorbike in the morning and broke a finger – captain for the day Blades duly lost the toss, yet again, and MCC were asked to bowl.
Hoeck and Arunachalam opened the batting to face Sestan and Konchada who both bowled well taking one wicket for 36 in eight overs between them. Next on were Blades and Penjuri who took three wickets for 30 in their eight overs, one of them to a superb running catch in the deep from Konchada to remove Gattinger. It was no consolation to him that on any other ground in Munich that hit would have been a six. The third bowling pair was Miller – always good for a wicket – and Alagh who took two wickets for 34 in their six overs and finally on came non-bowler Parlour who bowled very tightly with the slightly more expensive Algar and they took two wickets for 39 in their eight overs, Parlour getting Arunachalam, the highest scorer of the match for 47 with a stunning caught and bowled. TCC-CCB United finished on 141 for eight down in their thirty overs, 65 of the runs scored by the MCC ringers – this increases to 95 if we add the wides.
After teas which included some tasty home-made sausage rolls provided by Algar, MCC opened with Palfrey and O`Connor to face Govendar and Hoeck. Palfrey went caught by Arunachalam after facing three balls and was replaced by non-bowler Parlour, hand still bruised and smarting from the c&b earlier. O`Connor decided the cool fresh was calling and departed for one after facing 9 balls actually admitting the single should have been a bye but was willing to accept it as a run. With Veser and Parlour a good third wicket partnership of 55 blossomed until Veser went for 21, caught by Hoeck off Habib, one of the CCB players. Parlour went for 30 two overs later bowled by Gaikwad. Konchada and Algar put on a decent 28 for the fifth wicket until Konchada was rather unfortunately run out for 11. Alagh came and went quickly but succeeded in lowering the danger of taking the lead in the duck race. Miller had a golden one and MCC were now 113 for seven down in the 28th over. Out strode Sestan, eyes flashing and successfully preventing a hat-trick for Chakry. He also succeeded in passing the strike to Algar who was scoring at a rate of two a ball so we were in with a chance until Algar was rather comically run-out, he and Sestan doing a little two-step shuffle in the middle of the pitch rather than run around each other. Penjuri blocked the next three balls of Arunachalam’s over and Sestan somehow avoided hitting Gattinger`s only ball of the match and went for a duck. MCC were all out for 118 as Blades decided not to bat because the opposition had only nine batters too.
It has been a very enjoyable match and 15 MCC players had been able to get a game so many thanks to the organisers for some great work.
Palfrey, 0, caught
O’Connor, 1, caught
Parlour, 30, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 13 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Veser, 21, caught
Konchada, 11, run out, 4 overs, 1 mdn, 17 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Algar, 15, run out, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 26 runs, 1 wkt, 2 catches
Alagh, 1, bowled, 3overs, 0 mdns, 15 runs, 1 wkt
Miller, 0, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 19 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Sestan, 0, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 19 runs, 1 wkt
Penjuri, 0*, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 15 runs, 1 wkt.
Blades, DNB, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 15 runs, 2 wkts
MCC, 118 for 8, lost to TCC/CCB, 141 for 8, by 23 runs
MCC MOM: Parlour.
