Early in March Adschi phoned to say he had worked his yearly miracle and somehow been allocated their ground over one month earlier than any other clubs in Munich and would like to play a friendly against us on the day after the world cup final. It would have to be the day after he said because he felt that the final would be between Pakistan and England with England actually winning. So, on a beautiful spring day with birds singing, cherry blossom flowering and the temperature around 25°C we journeyed to Eduard Spranger full of hope and good cheer. The first thing to do of course was to wipe the permanent smile from Aamruth`s face which has been there since India won the final in Bombay, then help to set up the ground for a 1 pm start.
Captain Weston won the toss and chose to bat – not elected as some Sky commentators say rather annoyingly – and the innings was opened by Algar and new boy Ben Embleton who put on 11 runs before Algar was bowled for 1. There followed a good partnership of 57 between Embleton and Lovell, the 50 total coming after 7.5 overs, before Lovell went for 20, caught off the bowling of old-timer Tahir Mahmood. Weston and Ferguson came and went without troubling the scorers as they say, but only one run was added before Embleton was run out for a total of 33. Sear and Rabbani put on a quick fire 25 with Sear dedicating the first ball he faced to his new born daughter Alexandra and making up for sleepless nights by creaming the first ball he faced for a magnificent straight six. Sear was replaced by Blades who was at the crease for over an hour being the back-up to Rabbani and the pair put on 52 for the seventh wicket before Rabbini fell for 29 in the 31st over with the score on 150. Blades, Goldsack and Shankarappa took the score to 163 for eight in the alloted 35 overs, Blades finally falling for 15.
Up until the end of the eighteenth over it was pretty much even-stevens (MCC 102/6, Pak Orient 103/5) but therafter they pulled ahead rapidly and won the game in 25.3 overs with six wickets down, Khalid Butt retiring out on 26 from 22 balls.
MCC used eight bowlers, the best figures being returned by Sear with 1 – 11 off eight. True to form we far exceeded the Pak orient total for wides and bowled 32 in total.
Algar 1, bowled, 2.3 overs, 0 mdns, 0wkts, 16 runs
Embleton, 33, run out, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 17 runs
Lovell, 20, caught,
Weston, 0 LBW. (but thanks for coming)
Ferguson, 0, caught, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 1 wkt, 22 runs
Rabbani 29, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 21 runs
Sear 17, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 1 wkt, 11 runs
Blades 15, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 1 wkt, 25 runs
Goldsack 5* , 1 catch
Shankarappa 1*, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 1 wkt, 33 runs
Robinson DNB, 1 over, 0 mdns, 0 wkts, 7 runs
MCC man of the match, Lovell,for a solid 20 and becoming the club`s all-time highest run scorer, now with an aggregate of 5,403 runs. Shabash!”
Desmond B.