It was supposed to be a match against a touring team from Yorkshire, St Patrick`s but they cried off on Monday saying they had simply forgotten to tell us earlier and asking for help as to locations where they could watch the Ashes in Munich instead. Our old friends at Pak Orient stepped in and confirmed the fixture on Tuesday. It was a warm afternoon with a blue-white Bavarian sky, temperatures around 24°C and captain Sarma duly lost the toss so MCC fielded first. Blades and Clare opened the bowling for MCC and were soon among the wickets, with Pak Orient 64 for 3 in the 10th over, the third wicket being a superb slip catch by Lovell off Clare’s bowling. The outfield was hard and scoring boundaries was never difficult but really only Omar and Waleed actually took advantage of this. In all MCC used eight bowlers, including new boy Bhamare who took one wicket and Veser excelling with his low-flying–aircraft threatening loopers, one of which accounted for Tahir, the Pak Orient stalwart. The last two wickets fell to Sarma in the 29th over, one of them an amusing hit wicket and Pak Orient finished on 183 for 10, just over six per over.
After some French cuisine for teas, including seemingly armour-plated, unopenable plastic Wurst packages provided by Staub, MCC opened with Veser and Lovell to face Omar and Mustaza. They started modestly scoring at around four per over until Lovell fell in the 12th over with the score on 60. He was replaced by new boy on the block Tom Mitchell who had fielded well and showed he had a superb throwing arm. Mitchell went for 13 off 13 balls in the 18th over with the score on 91 and captain Sarma strode to the middle. He and Veser took MCC to the winning total of 184 after 28.5 overs, hitting 14 fours and one six in the process.
Veser, 80*, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 20 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Lovell, 19, LBW, 1 catch
Mitchell, 13, caught,
Sarma, 51*, 3.2 overs, 0 mdns, 12 runs, 3 wkts,
Van Giezen, DNB, – nearly had a catch but it was given out LBW
Staub, DNB, 1 over, 0 mdns, 21 runs, 0 wkts
Clare, DNB, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 23 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Garner, DNB, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 25 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Bhamare, DNB, 3 overs, 0 mdnns, 19 runs, 1 wkt
Kantor, DNB, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 19 runs, 0 wkts
Blades, DNB, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 43 runs, 4 wkts, 1 catch
MCC, 184 for 2 in 28.5 overs, beat Pak Orient, 183 for 10 in 28.2 overs by 8 wickets
MCC MOM Veser
Special thanks to Pak Orient for setting up a game on such short notice.