MCC v Argentina (match three) - match report

by Christian Tunon & Paul Bedford

The MCC won the three match series 3-0 with yet another close win over the Argentine side at Corimayo on Wednesday.

Following the previous game played between these two teams at the San Albano Club where over 500 runs were scored this game had the makings of being another run feast for the batsman.

Upon arrival at the ground the players were confronted with a damp pitch that was going to make batting difficult.

The match was still competitive and required other skills to be displayed by the batsman than shown in previous run fests.

To this end only four batsmen in the match scored over 20 and the fact MCC had three of these players was the difference.

Argentina chose to bat first and the conditions proved difficult for batting.

Argentina battled hard against an MCC bowling attack which has still to discover the right combinations for highly effective play.

Trego and Brooksbank were replaced by George and Mottram, both had moderate success before Woods and King offered the left arm spin option from both ends.

Bulpitt was held in reserve in case of any final over flourishes and did take a marvellous one-handed caught and bowled effort.

Billy MacDermott top scored for Argentina with a brisk 49 not out but ran out of partners in the 46th over.

Other contributors were Williams 16, Barton 16, and Gibson 15.

Run chase

As the day went on the wicket did dry out a lot but still wasn’t an easy surface to bat on with the balls holding in the surface.

The Argentine score was going to be difficult to chase down without due care.

Again Richard King proved to be the major difference between the two teams as he went on to score 61 not out to cross the 250 run mark for the tour and lead the MCC team through to a well earned victory.

Supported by Bedford 22 and George 33, MCC made good progress at reaching the hosts total. However, as often has been the case in this series the middle order wickets fell and MCC took rather longer than they would have hoped to chase down the total.

The Argentina bowlers fought hard with Casime taking two wickets ending with figures of 7-1-30-2 and MacDermott 10-1-36-3.

This win assured the MCC of a 3-0 whitewash in the three match series.

The series was a huge success and although the Argentina XI didn’t register a win they played some great cricket and fought hard.