An overcast day at the Hirschanger with sunny intervals, around 15°C, but a heavy downpour just before the scheduled start and a couple of rain breaks during the match. Captain Weston won the toss and chose to bat with a changed batting order based on analysis of earlier 50 over matches and how they were won. Consequently Carrie and Konchada opened with instructions to stay there and build a platform for the hard hitters to use to their advantage in the later overs, all to be recorded on-line with CricHQ by 12th man Sestan. The 12th man was quite happy taking on this role commenting that last season he was 12th man four times and played every game.
The openers followed their instructions to the letter, giving no chances and accumulating steadily until Konchada went for seven in the 9th over with the score on 21. He was replaced by Sarma, the highest scorer of the innings, who immediately created more urgent running between the wickets. They put on 53 for the second wicket when Carrie was run out for 34 in the 19th over and drinks were taken. Next man Archer put on 34 with Sarma for the third wicket, Sarma going for 40 in the 27th with the score on 108. Captain Weston replaced him determined to push the score along and made some big hits, mostly to fielders stationed in the outfield. He was lucky to survive a couple of dolly catches and finally went for 11 from 18 balls with the score on 138. Archer had already departed with the score on 119 so now Clare and Mitchell were at the crease. They put on 27 for the sixth Mitchell being bowled in the 36th over with the score on 165 and Clare departing in the next over with the score on 169. Qureshi and Nielsen put on one run before Qureshi went for 6 in the 38th and Nielsen joined the duck race, run out after two balls. Blades and Scott put on another five before Blades was stumped and the innings closed on 177 all out after 39.3 overs. In all honesty, had Nuremberg fielded decently – they put down nine or ten catches and their ground fielding was nothing to write home about – we would have has a far less competitive score to defend.
After teas provided by Carrie and the CricHQ scoring dying thereby releasing the 12th man for other duties, Nürnberg went out to face MCC openers Scott and Qureshi. Scott got his first wicket on the 6th ball of his first over and the score was 2 for 1 down. Qureshi also took a wicket with the fifth ball in his first over and the score was 9 for 2 down. Scott got his second in the fifth over, the score was 16 for 3 down and things were looking good. In the 14th over, Sarma, who had replaced Qureshi, got his first wicket and the score was 54 for 4 down. Sarma got his second in the 18th over and the score was 81 for five down. Nuremberg were ahead of the required run rate but had only five wickets left so the game was nicely balanced at the drinks break. Nielsen got the sixth wicket in the 24th over with the score on 124. Clare got the seventh in the 34th over with the score on 162 and in the 36th over their eighth was run out with the score on 167. The final run for victory was scored in the 39th over and an exciting game was over.
MCC fielded abysmally – no dropped catches but pathetic ground fielding, poor throwing to the keeper, poor backing up and three easy run outs missed. We also gave away 25 wides to their 13 so it is back to basics lads if we want to win games.
Carrie, 34, run out, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 13 runs 0 wkts
Konchada, 7, caught,
Sarma, 40, bowled, 7 overs, 0 mdns, 36 runs 2 wkts, 1 catch
Archer, 17 LBW,
*+Weston, 11, bowled
Mitchell, 26, bowled
Clare, 13, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 29 runs, 1 wkt
Qureshi, 6, caught, 6.3 overs, 0 mdns, 30 runs, 1 wkt
Nielsen, 0, run out, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 18 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Blades, 1, stumped, 4 overs 0 mdns21 runs, 0 wkts
Scott, 1*, 8 overs, 0 mdns, 27 riuns 2 wkts.
MCC, 177 for 10 in 39.3 overs lost to Nürnberg, 178 for 8 in 36.3 overs, by 2 wickets.
MCC MOM: Sarma