SPAIN SHARE THE SERIES WITH THE MCC
Spain won the second game of the two matches with the MCC to share the series with their illustrious opponents. After losing the first game by 109 runs the Spaniards made two changes to their line up with Imran Khan and Mohammed Akmal replcing Gurmeet Singh and Armaghan Khan.
The MCC also made two changes with Hartman and the ex Hampshire county player Kevin Emery coming in for the Somerset coach, Sanderson and Ashington club player Thewlis.
MCC won the toss and elected to put the hosts into bat. Spain again got off to a poor start with Spencer going cheaply for the second day in succession. Crompton joined Tariq Ali at the crease and they started building a score. Ali, who has been in scintilating form for Alcorcon in the CE Development League took the step up in class with consumate ease and posted a fantastic 77 before getting trapped leg before for the second consecutive day.
(Jimmy Morgan keeping wicket for Spain v MCC- La Manga, October 2010)
Crompton chipped in with 15, and although the home side lost the wickets of Morgan and Munoz cheaply, the middle order did their job has they all contributed to a final score of 224 all out off 47.5 overs.
MCC would have been feeling confident of overturning the Spain score but they also got off to a bad start for the second day running. Openers Talat Ali and Tariq Iqbal took a wicket apiece to have the tourists rocking at 14 for 2.When Iqbal got his second wicket of the day with the score on 37 it looked like 224 could be a winning total.
The next six batsmen all made double figures for the tourists, but none of them posted a really significant score and at 184 for 8 Spain were in a commnding position. Spin bowler Mahmood, whose bowling received a lot of punishment from the MCC batsmen he day before, took revenge and bagged the last two wickets, to give “La Seleccion” a deserved victory by 22 runs.
With the series split at one game each the tourist head up the Spanish coast for a game with Spanish National Champions, Cataluyna, at the Woodbridge Oval, Alfas on Monday, 25th of October.
At the conclusion of the 2 match series the National team Coach reflected on the weekend and had this to say to Cricket España about the performance of the team and the future…
“We were bitterly disappointed to under perform in our first game, in which we bowled poor lengths after a positive start, followed up by a strong comeback to reduce the MCC to 275. Whilst we showed some good signs with the bat after a disastrous start to our innings, losing 2 very early wickets, it was always going to bea tough ask as we struggled to get a major partnership going.
It was good to have our team meeting after the first game which not only set the scene for next years ICC Div 2 T20 competition but also for the following day. We set ourselves targets to show more responsibility with the bat and whilst we didn’t bat the 50 overs, defending 224 was achievable providing we improved our lengths from the day before along with our intensity and discipline throughout the innings, not just in parts.We achieved what we set out to do which was important as we enter a new phase for the National Squad.
The Spanish team who faced the MCC on Saturday, 23rd October 2010.