MCC v Tanzania U19s - match report

by Lt. Col Tim Lerwill (Tour Manager)

Every daily newspaper carried stories today about the MCC and how the Tour was a success both for the Tanzanian Cricket Association (TCA) and the MCC who had won all their matches relying “heavily on their bowlers as the batting only reached low totals”.

Players were determined to put this right but having been inserted again found runs difficult to come by against accurate bowling and excellent fielding.

Pearson & Rickman: Resistance with the bat Only Neil Pearson, 24, and Graeme Rickman, 26, got into the 20s and the two run outs at critical times left the MCC struggling to 133 for 9 off the 50 overs.

Previous experience suggested that this was probably sufficient but below the optimum required.

The Tanzanian U19 side bowled with purpose, set good fields and were generally tight throughout.

Four of their bowlers completed his overs economically – under 30 runs – with the pick being Riziki Kisseto who, later, was voted Man of the Match for his 3 for 26.

The young Tanzanians started their innings with purpose, running positively and looking to win.

Even though wickets were lost at 11, 36 and two at 47, the target looked well within their grasp whilst Khalil Remtulla, 21, and Rishan Patel 34, were together.

Foster: took a 'spectacular' catch With 19 overs to go and only 25 runs still needed, the MCC were looking at a defeat until a truly spectacular catch by the skipper, Michael Foster, to dismiss danger man Hamisi Abdalla, the National XI Captain, opened the door to the tail.

Paul Swift struck almost immediately to bowl Rishan and the pressure began to tell: two run outs followed and with Simon Cook removing the remainder.

The last five wickets fell for no additional score to leave the MCC victors and a clean sweep on the Tanzanian leg of the Tour.

This young Tanzanian squad, six of whom play for the full National XI, is built around enormous potential and expectation.

There is an air of confidence, the National Captain is 19 and the U19 skipper only 15 years of age, in the side with good team ethos and with more competitive games like this will become a strong XI within African if not world cricket.