On this, the 71st anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, MCC turned up at the Hischanger on a gorgeous summer day, temperature around 25 °C, hoping to take the defensive line of MIC by storm.
Captain Weston won the toss and chose to bat, opening himself with Carrie. The MIC opening salvoes were very wayward, the first two overs including seven no-balls and four wides. Throughout the engagement they continued to spread their artillery around and bowled 52 wides and 6 no-balls. This was fortunate for our troops as there were no big scores, Archer being the highest with 23 until Nielsen came along. Nevertheless there were some good partnerships, Weston and Carrie 54 for the first wicket, Nielsen and Clare 43 for the seventh wicket and Gaikwad walzed his way with Nielsen to 41 for the eighth wicket. MCC finished on 210 for 9 down, 61 of the runs being extras.
During, before and after teas provided by Nielson we were entertained by the two Gloucestershire Brummies, Darren and Simon. We also had a visit – the second in a year – from John Hamilton and there were a fair number of spectators on such a lovely day, including Anthony Berenger from SSC with his lady
MCC opened the bowling with Clare and Blades, Clare seeming early on to be apeing the MIC artillery and bowling 5 wides in his first two overs but still took a wicket. Thereafter he locked in the range and bowled two maidens taking a second wicket in his fifth over. Blades on the other hand started with two maidens and the batters were already under some pressure. Nielsen and Archer continued the good work but a big partnership of 81 for the fifth wicket caused a setback. Weston tried to outflank them for a couples of overs then had the inspiration to bring on Konchada who just removed the off-side bail of Roshan who had scored 72 and they were now on 144 and their defences had been breached. The MCC commandoes stormed through the gap, Konchada taking a second. Nielsen taking two and Carrie their 10th. MCC had fielded exceptionally well, some stirring catches on the boundary by Ishtiak and Mitchell and one extraordinary catch by Nielsen who was high in the air horizontal to the ground to take it.
Weston, 15, caught, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 15 runs, 0 wkts
Carrie, 16 bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 10 runs,1 wkt
Ishtiak, 10, caught, 1 catch
Mitchell, 6, caught, 1 catch
Archer, 23 caught, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 19 runs, 0 wkts
Konchada, 1, caught, 3 overs, 1 mdn, 12 runs, 2 wkts
Nielsen, 47, caught, 8 overs, 0 mdns, 47 runs, 2 wkts, 2 catches
Clare, 13, bowled, 7 overs, 2 mdns, 24 runs, 2 wkts, 1 catch
Gaikwad, 16 run out,
Furlonger, 2*
Blades, 0*, 8 overs, 2 mdns, 30 runs, 2 wkts,
MCC, 210 for 9 in 40 overs, beat MIC, 157 for 10 in 35 overs by 53 runs.
MCC MOM: Nielsen
Footnote 1: After the match MOM Nielsen performed almost a full Monty with his particular brand of trunks in the Eisbach.
Footnote 2: Almost certainly, had this match been played at the MIC ground, we would have been beaten. The two catches we took on the very deep boundaries would have been mighty sixes on their ground and many other balls would have been fours or sixes instead of ones and twos. Long live the Hirschanger
