The cricket gods were smiling, and presented us with a beautiful day as Vienna cricket club took on Bangladesh Cricket Club Austria in the first friendly match of the year. Our fearless leader Quinton strategically lost the toss and we were promptly sent into bat at Seebarn cricket ground.
Our innings can more or less be defined by one man- big Dan Eckstein. Car windows and tractors alike were in grave danger as Dan’s lusty blows rained six’s down on all parts of the ground on his way to 100 not out of just 78 balls. Conditions were not favourable to scoring quickly however, and all other VCC batsmen were only required to rotate the strike and enjoy the artillery from big Dan. After our 30 overs we had managed a very competitive 181.
Big Dan (1-7) and Wali (1-11) opened up, immediately putting the visiting batsmen under pressure pressure along with the wily Himi (1-15). All three struck early to swing the match truly in favour of VCC.
BCCA managed to strike up a frustrating partnership that was eventually broken by Dan Stevenson (3-22), who added a further two quick wickets the put the game beyond doubt. All it took was local legend Erwin (3-7) and the recently engaged James Penn (1-20) to pick the ripe fruit that was Bangladesh Vienna’s lower order, and finally ice them for 142 all out.
All in all a great day out for VCC, and plenty to work on for the rest of the season!
Michael Henry