The traditional first game of the season against Pak Orient on their proper artificial wicket in Hasenbergl. The weather forecast was for temperatures approaching 20°C but it never quite got up that high. Still it stayed fine and captain Weston duly won the toss and chose to bat first, opening the batting himself along with Veser. The Pak Orient opening bowlers, Omar and Imrani bowled tightly and runs were hard to come by. After 13 overs with the score on 47 the openers declared bringing Sarma and Toke to the wicket. Sarma enjoyed a pretty good run rate scoring 25 from 24 balls but Toke continued the test match pace set by the openers. After Toke was bowled for 5 in came Mascarenhas and shortly afterwards Arunachalam replaced Sarma with MCC now 88 for four down after 21 overs. Mascarenhas took a liking to Sher Khan`s bowling and gave him the full McCullum hitting one four and two sixes in one over, which turned out to be the Lion King`s last over. Mascarenhas departed with the score on105 to be followed by Bowes after also hitting a six (yes its true Darren) with the score now 125 for 6 down after 25.5 overs. Weybridge and Aranachalam pushed the score along rapidly with some good running between the wickets, particularly by Weybridge but with the score on 150 they were both gone and only three balls left. Garner sacrificed his innings going for a tight run and eventually MCC finished with 152 for nine down after 30 overs.
After the tea break where I learned that Pak Orient have over 150 registered players this year due to a huge influx of refugees, they opened with Rahim and Sher Khan to face the wrath of MCC bowlers Bhamare and Govendar. Bhamare started correctly with a wide but Govendar was sloppy and took two balls to bowl his first wide – still, he is new and didn`t realise we always start the first overs with wide balls. All MCC bowlers bowled well and after 9 overs the score was 41 for four down. However then Waleed and Omar joined the fray and things changed rapidly. They both retired with 43 and 33 runs respectively and the score on112 after 15 overs. Thereafter it was easy for Inzer and Imrani who replaced them to score the required 41 runs in 9.3 overs.
Weston, 28, retired out
Veser, 15, retired out
Sarma, 25, bowled, 1 over, 0 mdns, 10 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Toke, 5, bowled, 0.3 overs, 0 mdns, 1 run, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Mascarenhas, 19, caught
Arunachalam, 21, caught, 3 Overs, 0 mdns, 18 runs, 0 wks
Bowes, 11, caught
Weybridge, 11, bowled, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 27 runs, 0 wkts
Garner, 1, run out, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 31 runs, 0 wkt
Govendar, 1*, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 25 runs, 1 wkt
Gattinger, 1*
Bhamare, DNB, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 40 runs, 3 wkts
MCC, 152 -9 in 30 overs, lost to Pak orient, 153 – 6 in 24.3 overs by 4 wickets.
MCC MOM Bhamare