CCB beat MCC XII by 6 wickets
On a sunny Saturday morning, an MCC friendly bunch of 12 made the trip to face Cricket Club of Bayern Munich (CCB) who are based near West Park. The proposed start time of the game was 11am with the majority of the MCC members turning up close to the 10:30 meet time (Notably Sandhu being the first). When Hazza (skipper for the day) finally arrived, the coin was flipped, toss lost and MCC were put into bat. The actual start time was closer to 11:30 following delayed pitch building work, a vigorous warm up session and CCB taking to the field without realizing they didn’t own a ball.
Amit and Faraz opened the batting and it didn’t take long before the first wicket; Amit out for a duck with a contentious LBW on the 3rd ball. Faraz’s wicket soon followed through some superman-esque style slip catching off the edge of his bat. This brought to the crease Shashi who was the next wicket to fall for 2 runs after being caught at mid-on. The partnership between Shashi and Zeshan brought 27 runs from 5 overs to increase the run rate. Iyer was the next man in and out; bowled for 1 run. Zeshan then was the next wicket after playing well for 24 runs and was also bowled.
This was the start of a batting collapse which saw 5 wickets just yield 18 runs leaving MCC on 76-9 off 21 overs. The wickets were of Sumeet (LBW for 7), Bhamare (Bowled for 6), Giles (Stumped off a forward defensive for 3) and Joliffe (Caught at cover for 0). The 10th wicket partnership of Khanna and Sandhu was perhaps the surprise of the day and it lasted for 19 overs, more than doubling MCCs score with 88 runs added. Both batted resolutely, valuing their wicket and it was unfortunate that Sandhu’s wicket (Caught for 21) in the last over brought an end to what some say may be a record 10th wicket stand for MCC. Unfortunately, there wasn’t to be any more runs added to the total when 12th man Brooks left his skipper stranded on 44 after he was bowled without troubling the scorers. MCC ended up with a respectable 162.
Following a 20 minute break for teas, Giles led out 11 of the 12 to field with Khanna taking up scoring duties following his long stint in the middle. Brooks and Bhamare opened the bowling and some tight lines and pace kept the pressure on. At the end of Bhamare’s spell in the 10th over, CCB were restricted to 39 for the loss of 3 wickets. A wicket each for Brooks and Bhamare and some magic work in the field by Faraz resulting in a direct hit run-out.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t to be another wicket until the 29th over. Spells from Farhaz, Shashi, Zeeshan and Sumeet tried hard to break the partnership between Amit and Anup. They added c.100 runs to the board before Amit was caught in the deep from Sumeet’s bowling for a brilliant 69. No more wickets were to fall and Sandhu was hit for a maximum which sealed victory for CCB, Anup finishing on 45 not out.
MCC Batting
Bhalerao – 0
Ahmed – 3
Shaikh – 24
Gaikwad – 2
Iyer – 1
Sumeet – 7
Bhamare – 6
Giles – 3
Joliffe – 0
Khanna (c) – 44*
Sandhu – 21
Brooks – 0
MCC Bowling
Brooks – 1-31 off 8
Bhamare – 1-17 off 5
Ahmed – 0-30 off 6
Gaikwad 0-17 off 4
Shaikh 0-35 off 4
Sumeet 1-25 off 4
Sandhu 0-8 off 1
(Adrian Brooks)