Optimists Cricket Club

Optimists 1st XI beat MCCB in Walferdange on Sunday.

With a similar strategy to previous weeks (bat first, score 250 and bowl the opposition out for as little as possible) being adopted again, the Optimists 1st XI had pressure on them to perform to further thier chances of promotion.

Joost Mees continued his winning form and won the toss and decided to bat. Phase 1 complete! Deman Smit and Seb Finch were the openers to take on the MCCB opening bowlers. Both were in cautious in thier approach until Smit was eventually dismissed. With only 35 on the board after 10 overs, Richard Neale came to the crease with intentions of upping the run-rate. He did exactly that for all of 3 balls, hitting a boundary and two through mid-wicket before playing on from a high full toss.
Tony Whiteman replaced Neale but was out too in fairly quick succession which brought William Heath to the crease. While all this was happening, Finch continued to accumulate runs and was batting himself into form. Heath though was in form from the first ball and proved why his name has been on the batting trophy for so many years. With some slightly dubious fielding positions, Heath capitilised on anythign short and/or wide with a mixture of fine stokeplay and aggressive hitting.
Finch was eventually run out for a well deserved 41. Heath continued the onslaught though and as his batting partners came and went Heath was rapidly chasing down his century.
With a raptorous applace Heath raised his bat to mark the first century for the Optimists in league cricket this year.
With some lusty blows at the end the Optimists had set the MCCB batsman a target of 265. Phase 2 completed.

So, onto Phase 3...bowl out the opposition for as little as possible. Nishith Gandi and Taral Desai were asked to start this phase of play and immediately Nishith had the MCCB batsman in trouble. With slips and gullies ready, Nishith continued to beat the outside edge ball after ball. Desai was only at 70% fitness but still bowled well and managed to dismiss one of the opening batsman quite quickly. However, Iqbal Murad was introduced and soon found his stride as he continued to add to his tally of wickets for the season. Iqqi bowled with great consistency and variation of pace that was simply too good for the MCCB batsman. Iqqi looked certain to take another 5 wicket haul but had not bargained on the introduction of one Anand Pattibiraman. In only one over and 4 balls, Anand destroyed any hopes that MCCB might of had by taking three wickets and not even conceding a run. A shattered Nishith, having bowled a superb spell of 9 overs without reward was questioning effort/reward ratio between himself and Anand! It was an excellent display from the Optimists, with all the bowlers bowling well and not one catch was put down.

Another convincing and brilliant win leaves the Optimists 1st XI with one match to play against Antwerp on the 14th August at home. Please come down to support if you are not playing to witness the promotion (hopefully!) to the BCF 1st Division.


Optimists 265 - 5 (Heath 120*, Finch 41)
MCCB 70 all out (Iqqi 4-20, Pattabiraman 3-0 yes, 3 wickets for 0 runs!)

Optimists win by 195 runs