A warm sunny day and everyone happy to be back at the Hirschanger for the first home game of the season. Getting a full team had not been easy but piling on undue pressure at the Friday night training session meant we were able to put out a full eleven. Hobbs seemed to have camped out all night in front of the gates but it is always those who travel furthest who arrive earliest.
Captain Sarma won the toss and chose to bat and appointed Hobbs and Brunskill as the openers.They put on three before Hobbs joined the duck race after receiving a snorter from Krishna. New member Amit Bhalerao whom some refer to as Amit Subba Row, replaced him and a fine partnership of 66 for the second wicket ensued, Brunskill being run out for 35 in the 16th over after valiantly attempting to turn a single into a two. Captain Snake Charmer strode out and took the score to 113 after 20 overs. The partnership continued to flourish until Subba Row was out LBW in the 23rd over with the score on 129. O’Connor came and joined the duck race after facing five balls being run out to be succeeded by Miller who was very happy to get a single before being bowled by Kashif, MCC now being 140 for 6 as Sarma had departed having been bowled by Kashif a few runs earlier. In strode France’s finest, Nicolas Staub, the Strassbourg sprinter. The first ball he faced he managed a French cut for four – sometimes called a Chinese cut. As it was an Indian bowling to a Frenchman perhaps we should call it a French Indo-China cut from now on. Staub departed for 4 runs and in came Garner to join the duck race after facing two balls, MCC were now 140 for 8 down. Sestan, Blades and Furlonger all batted aggressively and took the score to 175, Blades being the last to fall.
Obaid and Renner opened for the MICs to face Blades and Garner, Renner falling to Garner’s third ball for a duck The MCC bowlers were very tight and after 20 overs, MICs were 73 for 6 down. After five balls in the first over after the drinks break the heavens opened with thunder, lightning and Lovell’s infamous hail. Well over an inch of rain fell and the gsame was abandoned to leave us to the serious task of emptying Helmuth’s fridge of cool fresh.
Hobbs, 0, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 21 runs, 0 wkts,
Brunskill, 35, run out,
Bhalerao, 29, LBW,
Sarma, 35, bowled, 1.5 overs, 1 mdn, 0 runs, 1 wkt, 2 catches,
O’Connor, 0, run out, 5 overs, 1 mdn, 19 runs, 3 wkts,
Miller, 1, bowled,
Staub, 4, bowled,
Garner, 0, bowled, 5 overs, 1 mdn, 18 runs, 2 wkts,
Sestan, 9, bowled,
Blades, 8, caught, 6 overs, 2 mdns, 15 runs, 0 wkts,
Furlonger, 11*,
MCC, 113 –2 after 20 overs, beat MICs, 73 – 6 after 20 overs on the 20 over ruling.
MCC MOM Sarma.