After an intensive net session on the Friday evening when only half of the team selected for Saturday turned up, MCC were all keyed up for the first Division I league match of the season to be played at the Hirschanger. Ravi the Ligaleiter arrived on time as the only umpire and the opposition arrived with no scorer but they were very good in hollering out the name of the new bowler whenever there was a change. It was a beautiful spring day with clear skies and the temperature hovering around 20°C. Captain Weston won the toss and chose to bat first, opening himself with vice-captain Mascarenhas who didn`t stay around long being bowled for four in the 3rd over with the score on 18. In came Wembridge, the MOM from the previous week, and proceeded to run out the captain after a partnership of 40 for the second wicket. Guess who will bat number eleven and field at third man next week. Butt came in and had difficulty scoring facing 32 balls for his 7 runs before becoming the first victim of Safiz`s Michelle. Arunachalam arrived for his last innings before moving to make Freiburg unsafe and hit some lusty blows before leaving LBW for Safiz`s second. Ayub joined the duck race and Altman scored five being numbers four and five of the Michelle respectively. Deverill, known as J.D, had landed from California in the morn so probably should now be known as J-L for jet-lagged. He was certainly time lagged in his wild stroke as he joined the duck race with a golden one. Colling remained not out despite getting a broken thumb and both Blades and Govendar managed to score one run each, Govendar being the fifth of the Michelle. From a reasonable position of 66 for two down after 20 overs MCC batted abysmally to be all out for 121 after 35.1 overs and this despite the new helmets with the go-faster MCC logo on them.
Excellent teas were provided by Blades as well as some really tasty cheese brought back from Amsterdam by Arunachalam.
MCC opened the attack with Govendar and Blades determined to make inroads in the wide boys table but, in the seventh over, Blades stuck with consecutive balls narrowly missing his first ever hat-trick for the club. Butt made even greater inroads in the wide boys list but Jet Lag bowled very tightly going for three runs only from his first three overs. Nuremberg`s captain Naveed Al Huq had retired hurt so at 20 overs they were 80 for two or three down, however you want to call it. Mascarenhas and Altmann got tonked around so Altmann replaced Weston as keeper who showed everyone how to do it bowling three overs for zero runs and taking two wickets. Nuremberg finished with 122 for four or five down after 27.4 overs. The go-faster helmets were consigned to the Eisbach and after repairing the Flicx we retired to the Chinese Tower and onwards to Harit`s pit to celebrate.
Weston, 28, run out, 3 overs, 3 mdns, 0 runs 2 wkts
Mascarenhas, 4 bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 33 runs, 0 wkts
Wembridge, 25, caught,
Butt, 7, bowled, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 15 runs, 0 wkt
Arunachalam, 15, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 13 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Ayub, 0, LBW, 0.4 overs, 0 mdns, 2 runs, 0 wkts
Altmann, 10, bowled
Deverill, 0, bowled, 5 overs, 1 mdn, 16 runs, 0 wkts
Colling, 5*
Govendar, 1, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 15 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Blades, 1, bowled, 6 overs, 1 mdn, 15 runs, 2 wkts
MCC, 121 for 10 in 25.1 Overs, lost to Nuremberg, 122 for 4 in 29.4 Overs, by 6 wickets.
MCC MOM: Weston
