A fine day around 26°C saw MCC travel to the bone-hard ground at Züricherstrasse for a must win league match against CCB. Bone-hard referred to the pitch and the outfield, not the running track and the tarmac strip on the leg side.
Captain Weston used Maria Teresa to win the toss and chose to bat, opening himself with Veser who hung around for only five balls before hitting one straight to point and we were one down for two runs on the board. In came Sarma of cheer leader fame and the captain and vice-captain put on 72 for the second wicket before Weston got a bummer, probably partly because of the extremely aggressive appealing by the CCB fielders. Baker came and went after facing nine balls when he hit one straight.to square leg. Archer was a definite LBW after he had faced 12 balls and MCC had reached a somewhat disappointing 105 for four down after 12 overs. In came Arunachalam to put on 76 with Sarma for the fifth wicket, Sarma also getting a bummer of an LBW decision and departing for 49. Nielsen shared a partnership of 77 before falling for 14 in the 28th over. Konchada continued the good work until he went for some iced melon in the 38th over having scored 25 and overseen Arunachalam get his first hundred for the club which he scored off 104 balls. Qureshi came in and went ballistic hitting three sixes in his 8 ball innings, he and Arunachalam putting on 25 for the eighth. Arunachalam fell in the 40th over going for runs rather than defend his not out score leaving Bowes to face one ball for a nought, not out.
During the tea break Aaron Kettle came along to wish us luck and say goodbye as he returns to England to complete his studies now. Thanks for coming Aaron, you will always be welcome. We also had a visit from old MCC member Waseem Baloch, now returned to Munich and looking for a few games.
After teas, including iced melon, CCB went out to face Blades and Sarma, our opening bowlers. Immediately it was seen that the pitch and outfield were very hard making runs easier to score than is usual in Munich. After seven overs they were 62 for nought and we had already tried three bowlers. In the eighth over Nielsen came on and the first wicket fell with the score on 62. Getting their second wicket proved nigh impossible until the 24th over when captain Weston finally got a breakthrough with the score on 212 – a partnership of 150 exactly. The next wicket, their captain McIntosh, came in the 29th after he had scored 36 from 20 balls with the score on 259. Things were beginning to look tight for MCC up until then but now centurion Arunachalam came into his own taking three wickets in one over, including their opener Appavu who scored 104 off 87 balls. Thereafter it was only a question of time and MCC rolled them over in the 34th over to win by 84 runs.
Weston, 40, caught, 7.3 over, 0 mdns, 55 runs, 4 wkts
Veser, 1, caught
Sarma, 49, LBW, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 19 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Baker, 5, caught
Archer, 6, LBW, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 31 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Arunachalam, 136, caught, 8 overs, 0 mdns, 48 runs, 4 wkts
Nielsen, 14, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 37 runs, 1 wkt
Konchada, 25, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 37 runs, 0 wkts
Qureshi, 19*, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 16 runs, 0 wkts
Bowes, 0*
Blades DNB. 4 overs, 0 mdns, 36 runs, 0 wkts
MCC, 369 for 8, beat CCB 285 for 9 (11th batter disappeared) by 84 runs
MCC MOM: Arunachalam