After two wins on the trot, Aliens were full of optimism when confronted with the challenge of playing undefeated Holmlia at Ekeberg. Johannes tossed in the absence of captain Geoff (who was delayed) and actually had success. Electing to bat in hindsight was probably the wrong way to go after having a lot of recent success in bowling good teams out cheaply and chasing well. What is that old saying? 20-20 vision??????
After William Dennett pulled out of the side with nose trouble, Chris Maile put up his hand and partnered Travis Weston in an opening stand of 24 which included a fine off drive from Chris that put the Holmlia mid off fielder in hospital with a bout of tooth through lip. Chris was eventually out for 11 and his run of low scores continues to bewilder the rest of the team as we all know what he is capable of. This brought Geoff Brooker to the crease and he continued his good form from previous weeks with a brisk 24 from as many balls when he was caught on the square leg boundary. The score had moved on to 66 at this stage and our rock, Travis Weston, although struggling a bit for touch, was holding down the fort. Or so we thought. He was out virtually straight away trying to force the run rate a bit. This was to be the catalyst for an old fashioned Aliens collapse with Clowes, Cameron and Hussein all following quckly without troubling the scorer too much at all. Holmlias bowling was not as good as we made it look at all. There was definitely easy runs to be had and Johannes Scholtz helped himself to a few before being bowled by the arrogant stand in captain, Teimoor. Drew Eakin also showed he is finding a bit of the form he showed at the tail end of last season by making 16 well compiled runs from 17 balls faced before he too fell victim to the same @#?=. Simon Herbert, Mitch De Beurs and Nigel Hornby were not left with much time to do anything and were out swinging the bat.
With 110 runs to defend against a team previously undefeated, taking the field, Aliens were ready for anything. An opener who scored 154 against us last time we met took guard and the niggling began. As we suspected he could not handle it at all and this time we held the first chance he gave us and sent him packing for a mere 13 runs. The other opener was in stunning form and had compiled a massive 14 runs by the drinks break whilst losing two more partners. Another wicket directly after drinks and Aliens began to sniff something good in the air and it wasn't coming from the direction of Boxall on the boundary. All six bowlers were troubling the batsmen, in particular, James Clowes, who had them at sixes and sevens with his wiley leg spinners and he finished with the nice figures of 1 for 22 from 6 overs.
The total we posted just wasn't to be adequate however and Holmlia passed us with 6 of their 10 men out.
I am not going to mention the catch that was dropped at the death but will make special mention of a superb effort by Guy Harris, who took a blinding catch diving full stretch forward at mid off to dismiss the racy opening batsman, Rahil. Guy was 12th man on Sunday but was required to take the field when Travis Weston started to feel ill. Funnily enough his illness started shortly after accepting a suspicious looking pork chop from Guy Harris between innings.
A week off greets us now and then into action again against the other gun side, Jinnah. Lets give 'em curry.
