Having narrowly lost to Nuremburg last week we were pretty confident of getting our first league victory at the Eduard Spranger ground on the only proper artificial wicket in Munich. It had rained quite heavily in the night and was still spotting as we made our way there to arrive at 12 noon. Then it stopped and the day became progressively more pleasant and we finished up in warm sunshine. Nielsen had bailed due to illness and 12th man Kantor took his place for his first ever competition foray.
Captain Weston won the toss and chose to field reckoning the batting would be easier later on after the outfield had dried out, opening the bowling with Scott and Blades. They bowled extremely tightly and after 14 overs POCC were 37 for 3 down which included a superb stumping by Furlonger. The fourth wicket went down in the 17th over and at drinks they were 61 for 4 down. Basit and Khalid Butt put on a 98 run partnership for the fifth wicket and things were looking grim until Weston got Khalid well caught on the boundary by Veser. He was replaced by Omar Khan who went his usual ballistic way about scoring and hit 39 off 21 balls including four massive sixes. Basit had been bowled by Weston with the score on 188 in the 37th over and two balls later he got Murtaza for a duck leaving them 190 for 7 down. Sarma got Omar LBW in the 40th over, two balls later he got Khalid Butt with a stupendous caught and bowled and then on the 5th ball of the over Furlonger achieved a splendid run out of 60 years old Tahir Mahmood. Pak Orient finished on 210 all out in 39.5 overs.
After tea MCC opened with Veser and O’Meagher, Veser hitting the very first ball for a six over cover point. He was out caught in the 12th over with the score on 47 to be replaced by Sarma. Skipper Massala looked really out of sorts and scored only four from 11 balls faced before getting caught by Omar with the score on 60. Weston followed him shortly after with the score on 64 in the 19th over and in the same over, O’Meagher, who had been playing the anchoring role, went for 23. At the drinks we were 65 for 4 down so slightly ahead but needing to score at seven an over for the rest of the match. We were well short of this when Archer fell in the 26th over with the score on 81. Clare strode out needing to score at 10 runs per over with Ishtiaq and he went ballistic scoring 44 runs off 20 balls, so even topping Omar with six huge sixes before being bowled by Omar with the score on 134 in the 31st over. Furlonger came and went after facing one ball to be replaced by Kantor who faced 5 balls before joining Furlonger in the duck race with the score on 135. Blades and Ishtiak put on six before Blades went for 1 leaving number eleven Scott to save the match with Ishtiaq. They actually put on an unbeaten 40 for the last wicket, of which Scott scored 1 and the opposition were clearly getting rattled. The task turned out to be just a little too much and MCC finished with 181 for 9 down after 40 overs.
Veser, 34, caught, 1 catch
O’Meagher, 23, caught
Sarma, 4, caught, 7.5 overs, 0 mdns, 39 runs, 2 wkts, 1 catch
Weston, 1, caught, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 36 runs, 3 wkts
Archer, 8, caught, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 45 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Ishtiaq, 46*
Clare 44, bowled, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 37 runs, 1 wkt
Furlonger, 0, bowled, 1 stumping, 1 catch
Kantor, 0, caught
Blades, 1, caught, 8 overs, 2 mdns, 36 runs 2 wkts
Scott, 1*, 8 overs, 1 mdn, 17 runs, 1 wkt.
MCC, 181 for 9 lost to Pak Orient, 210 for 10 by 29 runs
MCC MOM: shared by Clare and Ishtiak
