A must win match against Erlangen to retain any hopes of remaining in Division I next season as Serendib had actually stuffed Nuremberg the previous day and had three wins to our one under their belt. A win in Erlangen would mean we could still top them with two more matches after this weekend, one of them at home against Serendib.
Three cars left the Hirschanger at 0830, two heading directly for Erlangen, one in the opposite direction to collect Butt who was resting after a raucous night and also preparing himself to play in the Norwegian premier league on 1st/2nd July.
Captain Ayub used Maria Theresa to win the toss and chose to bat, opening with Altmann and Wembridge, who had regained his form the previous day with a 71 not out against FFOP. Altmann returned to the hutch in the second over with the score on 3 to be replaced by the future Norwegian premier leaguer. In the tenth over, Butt left to bone up on his Norwegian and captain Ayub took his place. There followed a superb partnership of 155 for the third wicket – the third highest ever – Ayub going in the 40th over for 64 and the total on 177. Khan Mahmud went in the same over with a golden one and made way for Deverill. Ninety one runs later Deverill was out caught, allowing Bhamare to join the golden ducks for the day. Qureshi replaced him and was able to score two and Wembridge to carry his bat for a magnificent 164 not out, thereby occupying second place in the elite 150 plus runs-in-an-innings club
The target of 286 in 50 overs for Erlangen was certainly defendable and after teas provided by Qureshi, MCC opened the bowling with Khan Waqas and Deverill. After bowling two overs and going for 15 runs, Waqas was replaced by Khan Mahmud who was also very generous for his first two overs. In fact, apart from Deverill, all the bowlers were pretty wayward and, after 10 overs, Erlangen were 60 for none. MCC managed to take four wickets only and the fifth wicket unbeaten partnership was for 104, the batsmen finishing on 106* and 60* respectively. The fielding had not been good, simple catches being dropped with the score on 58, 90, 126 and 233 and a number of more difficult ones going awry too. To round off a poor day in the field one of their batsmen played on but the bails were not disturbed. The old adage about winning matches certainly rang true.
+2 Altmann, 1, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 22 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Wembridge, 164*,
+1 Butt, 6, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 21 runs, 0 wkts
*Ayub, 64, LBW, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 46 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Khan Mahmud, 0, bowled, 8 overs, 0 mdns, 47 runs, 2 wkts
Deverill, 28, bowled, 8 overs, 1 mdn, 32 runs, 0 wkts
Bhamare, 0, caught, 0.3 overs, 0 mdns, 13 runs, 0 wkts
Qureshi, 2* 3 overs, 0 mdns, 32 runs, 0 wks
Kotru, DNB
Khan Waqas, DNB. 10 overs, 0 mdns, 55 runs, 1 wkts
Ahmad Imtiaz, DNB, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 14 runs, 0 wkts
MCC, 284 – 6i in 50 overs, lost to Erlangen, 286 – 4 in 43,3 overs by 6wickets
MCC MOM: Andrew Wembridge