Munich, 20th May 2023
Before this weekend started MCC –II were the table toppers in Group C with 4 wins out of 4 (yes you read that right). To strike a right balance between finding the best XI and giving the new boys a go, MCC II saw three debutants for the match day against Lohhof Whites : Hanish , Malte and Vishal.
Skipper Phil already did his homework overnight by keeping his game plans ready and while we all were waiting for the ground gates to be open, Phil offered the opponent to bat first without having a toss. And no surprises that the opponent skipper REJECTED that straight away, Even the coin didn’t flip in our way so eventually we had to bat first. Switched to plan B quite early.
Sandy and Vishal opened the innings for MCC II and Sandy got an absolutely screamer (courtesy: Flix), awkward bounce and took his gloves to the keeper (The only ball which misbehaved that whole day).
On strike were then Dan and Vishal and as you know on Flix 1 brings 2 and 3….then all out, this is exactly what we wanted to avoid. Batting 20 overs to get some runs on the board was the goal and somehow both managed to occupy the crease, scoring was not so fluent with the score being 35 in 10 overs when Vishal got out. The later batsmen had the full license to go for the full monty. With all the mighty swipes MCC could manage 67/7 at the end of 20 (at least half the goal was achieved by batting 20 overs :D). With the ball in hand and a minor score to defend, not everything went as planned (I guess this was the story of the whole day). With extras , catching falling short , lady luck going the opponents way , Scotty bowled a perfect test match line and length restricting the opponents scoring but at the end they managed to chase down the target within 13 overs.
The coin didn’t favor us in the second game too as the opponent won the toss and decided to field AGAIN. Amol and Malte replaced Vishal and Rahul for the second game. The goal was as previously to bat 20 overs and get some runs on the board but within the first 6 overs half of the team was back in the hut with the score 18-5. For sure at some point, the goal switched to crossing our first game score of 66. We could eventually only manage 46 runs before being bowled out in 13 overs. In return the opponent ending up chasing the score within 7 overs and beated us comprehensively.
The silver lining for the players were now they could go home earlier as matches wrapped up quickly but that’s when Phil pulled out a rabbit from the hat. He asked the opponent skip for an unofficial 12 over game and without no surprise he accepted the offer. The opponent already knew our desperation to bowl first and they accepted it this time. They ended up scoring 101 in 12 overs (this was almost our combined score of the previous two games). Now we had the chance to just slog to our deaths in order to reach that score. And our boys did’nt disappoint at all. Everyone slogged, few connected and few dints, some players who were out refused to leave 😀 but at the end it came quite close and we managed to level the scores. (Wish we had this same intent of slogging and smashing in the previous two official games). At the end, the result was decided on a bowl out as no one was interested in a super over courtesy tiredness 😀 where the opponent got the better of us again.
All in all it was a good, tiring and learning day of cricket with some of the players also selected to play for the next day T20s against Landshut where loads of drama unfolded . STAY TUNED for the next day’s match report.
Vishal Mishra
