Lohhof, 30th April 2023
It was MCC-II’s 1st match of the BCV- Verbandsliga- Bayern and we could not have asked for a better
day. Sunny sky with a bit of overcast and temperatures hovering close to 16-18°, it was a beautiful
day for Cricket. After the double win of last week over Neuperlach Kings-2, Boys were really in high
spirit and looking forward to a good game of Cricket. We also saw the return of our Lifetime member
Harit Khanna and in absence of Dave (he did give a guest appearance later though), Ruhel took
charge of leading the team.
SVL-II won the toss and elected to bat 1st and their Opening batsman Sajal and Rishabh made sure
that it was not a wrong decision. Their opening partnership started decently, and they added good
34 runs for the 1st wicket. For MCC-II Ritwik and Priyansh shared the new ball, and in his 3rd over
Ritwik brought the 1st break for the team before Sajal could settle. Not long after, it was Priyansh
who claimed the wicket of Jayadeva. After the fall of 2 quick wickets, Arun and Sundeep were
brought in and despite not getting any wickets in their 1st spell, they did a decent job of restricting
the run rate of SVL-II. As the 3rd wicket partnership (of 52 runs) between Rishabh and Praveen was
starting to look dangerous, Manish was brought in as a change just before the tea, and boy, he did
not disappoint. Despite the uneven ground, a brilliant dive-roll catch on long off by Priyansh sent
Praveen back into pavilion.
However, the joy was short lived. The new batsman Arun with already settled Rishabh added 64 runs
for the 4th wicket partnership. 28 overs were gone and with 3/163, SVL-II was aiming to reach 260+
score (Insider info from their team). But as it is often said that in cricket, the game can turn at any
given time, and it could not have been truer today. As things were starting to look a bit gloomy, Arun
came back for his 2nd spell and took the wicket of Rishabh (who scored a very good 57 runs of 77
balls). And then Nishant, coming in as a change, made sure that none of the new batsmen could
settle on the crease. Both bowled brilliantly as they took a wicket every over for the next 5, bringing
SVL-II from 3/163 to 8/173. And while they were bowling well, we also witnessed some brilliant
catches from Simrat and Sundeep. Coming back for their last spell, Ritwik and Priyansh ensured that
there were no surprises from the tailenders and SVL-II was restricted to 10/189 in 38th over.
With a decent target of 190 runs MCC-II was feeling pretty confident. Arun and Amol went in as the
opening pair and team was looking forward to a good partnership from them. But credit where
credit’s due. Ravi (4/9) and Siddharth from SVL-II bowled really tight and did not let the top batting
order of MCC-II settle. Losing 4 wickets in 8 overs for just 12 runs soon brought MCC-II on defensive.
Ruhel coming in at number 6 and Amol holding his end, they started to build what seemed like a
good partnership. Not only did they rotate strikes, but we also witnessed some beautiful boundaries
from them. In the 17th over however the partnership (of good 31 runs) was ended. With Amol (25
runs of 46 balls) back in pavilion and score at 5/43, the match was slowly (not that slow though)
slipping away from MCC-II. Ruhel scored a good 26 runs of 38 balls, but no other lower order
batsmen could manage to hold their end and MCC-II was bowled out for 76 runs in just 25 overs.
It was a beautiful day and a good game of cricket in high spirits took place. It did not have the
desired result for MCC-II, but they shall come back next week and aspire to do even better.
Rahul Singh
