Match Report- MCC II vs Mühlried CC in Verbandsliga
On a sunny Saturday MCC was looking to set the record straight after suffering two consecutive losses in the previous game. The visitors arrived on time albeit with 2 players short. Yet another delay from Zazai Khan meant MCC was short by one player at the start of the game. This situation remained unchanged till the end of the game as Zazai Khan wasn’t allowed to take part in the game due to his 75 min delayed appearance. Member John aka Doc had kindly offered to score the game which was appreciated by all the team members.
MCC won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Obaid and Ali opener their account with crisply hit boundaries relaxing some initial nerves in the dug out. However this sense of security was short-lived as both of them returned to the shed given out LBW. Rahul continued his good form from his previous outing in Tegernsee and hit two lovely boundaries to bring the score to 26 for 2. Rahul tried one shot to many against an innocuous looking off spinner and was held out at long off to a very good catch. Southpaw Arun looked set for his brief innings before giving the bowler the easies caught and bowled chance. Captain Prafull Toke joined MCC debutant Paul busby and decided to play a very ugly shot to get out for his third consecutive duck leaving MCC tattering at 30-5. Ankur Bhatia and Paul tried to arrest the fall of wickets for a while before ending up in a horrible mixup. Following batsman Owen,Faraz dint score much are MCC ended up scoring 51 in 16 overs. Batting has been achilles heel for the MCC II however this batting performance was a new low and left everyone a bit dumbstruck.
With small total to defend and vulnerable opposition batting line ( who by the way managed 43 runs in their previous fixture) MCC went on full attack mode. MCC experienced opener Paul Scott conceded 10 runs in the first over and thereby made the target loose even smaller. Faraz bowling from the other end got the first breakthrough when Ankur completed a nice catch in the gully region. Opener Siddique smashed third consecutive boundaries of Paul Scott’s third over. batsman was dismissed one last bowl giving MCC some hope. Faraz struck once again in the next over getting the nervous Samilullah for a paltry 2 runs. Taken for some runs in the first two overs, Paul Scott returned with vengeance to get two wickets in two deliveries, both the batsmen bowled for 0. Score was 44for 5 and MCC needed another 3 wickets. Debutant Paul Busby was handed the ball for his wicket to wicket bowling and he immediately responded with one wicket bringing the score to 47 for 6. Actually Paul was unlucky not to get another wicket as the umpire turn downed the most plum LBW one would ever see. Opposition captain Rahimi went for big shot and was dismissed for 10 once again by Paul with score on 48. Mühlried CC needed one shot to get over the line. Batsman Rehman went for the glory only to be caught by Ankur for another 0 giving MCC very unlikely victory.
MCC kept its cool in a very high pressure situation and did not a single catch in the game. Wides were kept to a bare minimum which was at the end really made the difference.
Notable Performances
Rahul Bhat 10, caught, one catch
Paul Scott 5-25, 0* (MAN OF THE MATCH)
Faraz Ahmad, 2-20, 0
Paul Busby, 1-3,0
MCC II wins by 3 runs
PT
Mühlried = Schrobenhausen?
