The first game to be held at the University of Oregon Next Turf field was a success. Everyone had fun under the lights and we hope this small step will allow us to have more games at home.

Brief Description:

MCC won the toss and elected to bat first. MCC were quickly out of the gates though loosing †Cam Thomas early. The small size of field was showing and Khalid Wahab and Chris Jones took advantage of the that and the aggressive OCCE fielding. Kamal Thangasara was able to pick up some wickets and even with Khalid Wahab retiring after his quick 30, Alok Sharan and Ken Barker kept the scoreboard ticking over at more than 8 runs an over. In the end overs Asok for MCC played some great shots facing the OCCE fast bowlers to push the MCC score to 183 for 6. Khalid Wahab top scored with 43 not out and Kamal Thangasara took 2/24.

OCCE started their chase cautiously with some great bowling by Paul Sherwood. Jim Cleavenger played some good shots reaching his 30 runs in quick fashion. He had to face one more delivery before he was going to be retired, and on that ball he charged down the track little too early was bowled by Chris Jones over his head. Half way through OCCE saw themselves needing 100+ to win in 10 overs. Ninad Kadam and Kamal Thangasara tried to hammer their way out of the deficit but good fielding from MCC and the OCCE tail giving out wasn’t enough. OCCE ended with 164/3. Kamal Thangasara top scored with 42 not out and Ken Barker took 2/34.

MCC were very happy with the field and even though it was small the surface is great for cricket.  The small field and high bounce makes this field a batman’s paradise. Some rules changes we employed for this game were 8 on 8 because again the size of the field. 20 over game with wide balls counted as 2 runs and the ball counted. 30 runs the batman is forced to retire and can come back once all wickets have fallen. The field is a soccer/lacrosse field and we had the pitch setup in the center at a diagonal to allow for the best symmetry for left and right. The idea comes from Charity game that was held in a indoor soccer stadium in England. Here is a video of Shahid Afridi hitting the rood for 12 runs.

All in all a great game all round, next season the OCCE hopes to play in the Oregon Cricket League with home games on our field. Thank you MCC for being part of this event and we hope to have many more.

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Scorecard: open