Tours organiser Konchada set up a friendly against the Pak Orient away and they needed a strong team to play against as preparation for their T20 final against MIC on Sunday 30th. Everything was set up, we had a reasonably strong team and even some volunteers from Tegernsee if we were short.
But as Robbie Burns was wont to say “the best laid schemes o’ mice an men gang aft-agley”. Sunday morning there were three bailages – Weston had picked up the dreaded lurgi in France (otherwise known as the squirts), Mitchell got pissed on Saturday night and fell off his bicycle for the umpteenth time and Bhamare had a wife with the tummy ache. Never fear though, we had the three Tegernsee volunteers and also Waseem Balloch had agreed to turn out for us. Unfortunately for me this meant the leisurely Sunday morning I had planned was ruined as I had to get to the Hirschanger by 11:30 to pick up the kit – no keys of course as Bowes decided to take them to England with him, no scorebook as Sarma decided to leave it in his office while’st he went to the Oval test match. Still the organiser has a second set of keys so some progress was made. Someone has decided that the kit box or kit bag is not the place to keep new match balls nor the 30 or so used balls we have. They are all gone. What genius of a pillock did this I wonder? There was one very battered and scratched ball in the kit bag so we took that.
While we were driving to the ground Aranachalam sent his usual SMS to say he would be late – is he ever on time? Toke also decided a 12:30 start was not for him and texted that he too would be late. At the appointed time for the toss we had five players there one of them Veser and were asked to field first as soon as we had a team. This was where the organiser had a stroke of genius, he had told the three Tegernsee lads that the game was to be played in Ungererstrasse, the Pak Orient’s business address and so they rang to say they couldn´t find the ground. Some 40 minutes later they arrived at the real ground and by borrowing 3 subs and a match ball from Pak Orient we were able to start at 13:17, almost an hour late. Eventually Arunachalam and Toke arrived and finally at 13:45 Balloch, who had gone to play at the Hirschanger, turned up just one and a quarter hours late.
MCC opening bowlers, Yash and Qureshi obviously enjoyed the conditions with a hard bouncy wicket. Yash took the first wicket in his third over, a splendid catch by Habib, the only Pak Orient sub still on the field. He paid it back though by taking 4 wickets when we were batting. In his 4th over Yash got the magnificently named Sher Khan LBW and they were 33 for 2 down. A strong 55 run partnership between Anwar and Basit was broken when Basit was well caught by Chakrit off Hashimi’s bowling. Pak Orient captain Ali was run our for 0 by a super direct hit from Rahil, another Tegernsee ringer, much to Ali’s displeasure so, after 18 overs, they were 101 for 4 down. Next to go was Anwar, bowled Rahil for 70 off 62 balls followed quickly by Inzer, caught Chakrit bowled Toke. Rahil struck again to get Khuram LBW and they were 149 for 7 down in the 26th over. Veser made a superb stumping off a wide from Konchada to take them to 162 for 8 down. Yash came back on to bowl a few wides and then bowl Rahim who was replaced by Waqar who did his usual trying to hit the moon and was well caught by Konchada off Rahil. Pak Orient finished on187 all out from 32.2 overs leaving MCC needing only slightly over 5 runs per over to win.
After teas MCC opened with Veser and Sharma to face Habib and Inzer. They put on 26 before Veser was caught for 18, one of them an astonishing six which went horizontally to the boundary trees some eight feet above the ground. Sharma followed him two runs later and Toke did the same one run later. Chakrit went without troubling the scorers as they say and Arunachalam went for 4 leaving us at 34 for 5 down after 6 overs. Our batters seem to have caught the same bug as was apparent in the Ashes and tried to finish the match in one over rather than blocking and waiting for the inevitable bad ball. Balloch went also without troubling the scorers although he did block nine balls before missing a straight one. Qureshi hit some splendid boundaries which helped to put on 25 for the next wicket which came to an end when Yash lobbed up a dolly to Umpire Coordinator Khan at mid-on. Konchada went for one, Hashimi joined the duck race and Rahil was run out leaving Qureshi not out on 27. MCC were all out for 70 in 13.3 overs but had exceeded the required run rate (moving ahead and looking for positives you see).
+Veser, 18, caught, 1 stumping
Sharma**, 5,bowled, 22 overs, 0 mdns, 26 runs, 0 wkts
Toke, 1, caught, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 18 runs, 1 wkt
Arunachalam, 4, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 22 runs. 0 wkts
Chakrit, 0, bowled, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 12 runs, 0 wkts, 2 catches
Balloch, 0, bowled
Qureshi, 27*, 5 overs, 1 mdn, 26 runs, 0 wkts
Yash** 3, caught, 7 overs, 0 mdns, 30 runs. 3 wkts
*Konchada. 1, LBW, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 16 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Hashimi, 0 bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 26 runs, 1 wkt
Rahil, 2, run out, 3.2 overs, 0 mdns, 10 runs, 3 wkts
MCC, 70 for 10 in 13.3 overs lost to Pak Orient, 187 for 10 in 32.2 overs by 112 runs.
MCC ‘MOM: Rahit**
** denotes Tegernsee ringer
