A squad of 13 was selected to try and maintain the charm of the new score book in a 35 over friendly at Eduard Grasser. Actually only eleven were there at the start, Bhamare and Zazai losing their way on the journey to the north of Munich. It had been decided beforehand that Sestan and Zazai would bowl only, much to Sestan’s delight as he would no longer have to defend his lead in the duck race.
Captain Carr duly won the toss and chose to field, opening with Sestan and Hashimi as Zazai hadn’t yet arrived. Sestan took the first wicket in the 5th over, getting Tahir, the Pak Orient star in the league match last week LBW for 7. Suleiman, an ex MCC player, and Usman put on 49 for the 2nd wicket before Usman was bowled for 17 by Zazai who bowled very well for the first four overs of his session and showed that a week of practice lowered the wide balls considerably. Suleiman retired having made 50 in the 26th over Unfortunately for Zazai the wides came back in the fourth and fifth overs which were after the drinks break. Kettle got the fourth wicket immediately after Suleimans’s retirement bowling Saad for 11. He also got their 5th wicket, a splendid catch on the boundary by Gattinger and Pak Orient 126 for 5 down. Next to go was Ahad Ullah who somewhat surprisingly retired when on 0 having taken up 8 balls and obviously they needed to force the pace a little. The 6th wicket partnership of 33 was broken by Chakrabarty who bowled Rahim for 24. Khan who had come in to replace the retiring Ullah was bowled by Gattinger for 4 in the 33rd over and Chakrabarty had a caught and bowled in the 35th and last over leaving Pak Orient 176 for nine.
During the tea break we had a visit from Ahmed Aziz, who played for us as a teenager from 1997 to 2001. He has been in Saudi and happened to be driving past the ground and saw that cricket was being played.
After teas, MCC opened with Toke and Bowes who put on 12 before Bowes was caught for 3, taking him to a double figure aggregate. Two runs later Toke was out caught for 1 and now Konchada and Baker were at the crease. Konchada made a useful 22 before departing with the score on 83 in the 12th over – its that 69 partnership again. Baker had made some powerful, impressive shots scoring 6 fours and 5 sixes in his 75 from 54 balls, the fifty coming off 32 balls. Captain Carr had taken 13 balls to join the duck race but when Baker was out we were 147 for 5 in the 23rd over and looking good. In the next over that was 150 for 6, Bhamare departing LBW for 8. Alagh and Chakrabarty put on a useful 16 for the 7th until Alagh went caught for 2. MCC needed 11 to win with only three wickets left and Pak Orient went back to their opening bowlers. With the score on 167 Chakrabarty went for 14 and two runs later Hashimi went for 2 in the 29th over leaving us 169 for 9 down. In came Gattinger to join Kettle who had been playing the straightest of straight bats and the atmosphere was electric. On his tenth ball faced he edged one behind and they ran three leaving 5 runs needed for victory. Next was a dot ball then Gattinger simply smashed a four to mid-off that took ages to find in the undergrowth with the scores tied. Kettle straight batted the first two balls back to the bowler and, joy of joy, the next was a leg bye to give us a remarkable victory.
Toke, 1, caught, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 15 runs, 0 wkts
Bowes, 3, caught
Konchada, 22, caught
Baker, 75, caught
Carr, 0, caught
Bhamare, 8, LBW,
Chakrabarty, 14 caught, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 25 runs, 2 wkts, 1 catch
Alagh, 2, caught, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 18 runs, 0 wkts
Hashimi, 2, caught, 6 overs, 1 mdn, 23 runs, 0 wkts
Kettle, 3*, 4 overs, 1 mdn, 16 runs, 2 wkts
Gattinger, 4*, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 13 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Sestan, DNB, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 19 runs, 1 wkt
Zazai, DNB, 6 overs, 2 mdns, 36 runs, 1 wkt.
MCC, 177 for 9 in 30.3 overs best Pak Orient 176 for 9 in 40 overs by 1 wicket.
MCC MOM: Baker (and the new scorebook