Friendly: Aliens vs Fjord
Result: Aliens beat Fjord by 90 runs.
So the first of the midweek fixtures for the Aliens this year arrived with the early spring weather disappearing and being replaced with a chilly windy day in Stovner.
With Damien away with the Norway national team it was down to a senior member of the team to lead the side. Ryan stepped up bragging that his unbeaten time as skipper of the club made it the right decision for him to lead the side.
So on arrival to the ground the new skipper quickly selected Mitch as his vice skipper to help out with the field placements and tactics. With the Fjord skipper in agreement the overs were reduced from the original 30 to 20 due to the lack of time and light and unlike Damien, Ryan managed to win the toss and elected to bat first.
Like all great skippers in cricket he decided to put himself at the top of the order and lead from the front with Alien newcomer Ravi as his opening partner. They started brightly with Ryan showing his winter form in the nets was not just the luck smashing the opening bowlers for boundaries in each of the first 4 overs. Ravi departed a lot earlier than expected top edging the ball to first slip and with his departure brought the one and only Timmy Magic to the crease.
Timmy Magic last years most improved award winner has continued his hard work on his batting during the winter and with his expensive new bit of timber in his hand felt confident he would score runs. He started a little cagey and struggled to get the bowlers away but this was of no problem as the skipper was flying at the other end picking the bowlers off with ease and racing the score past 60 in just 5 overs.
With Tim continuing to show more confidence at the crease and starting to find his range disaster struck for the skipper. Possible the weakest of bowlers pulled the pin on a hand grenade and launch it shoulder height at Ryan, with a complete swing and miss the ball then dropped onto his stumps and off he went for 42.
This brought Simon Herbert to the crease and after showing off some of the tightest cycling gear known to man before the game he felt in good form coming into bat. Maybe the clothing was a little too tight as the blood rushed to his head and he was caught out. With Simon out Damon Crawford rolled his body made of glass to the crease, to see if he could improve his fitness of his ankle and wrists ahead of the league games to come.
With these two set at the crease the skipper directed the batting power play was taken and the two batsmen took the score over 150 and Timmy Magic getting a standing ovation from the Aliens side after recording his first 50 for the club. When the innings was over the Aliens had scored a very respectable 162 and a very happy skipper.
So after a little motivational speech from the stand in skipper the team was fired up to go out and continue the unbeaten start to the season for the Aliens. With Gavin not batting he was fresh to opening the bowling and did so, showing great aggression and pace. With the skipper the only viable option with the gloves there is always a cause for concern for byes but kept pretty well throughout the innings. The 2nd over we nearly saw Aliens history with Mitch first taking a wicket caught by Damon Crawford then snaring the next batsman the very next ball with a superb return catch which is an early favourite for catch of the season. With the skipper bringing the field up and having a little chat to the batsman the hat trick ball was well blocked out.
With the bowling changes made every 2 overs to give all the bowlers a go it brought two new Alien players into the game. Ather Kaleem who showed his swing bowling skills during our winter training showed he can produce the same outside with some cracking bowling and returned with his first wicket for the Aliens. Another debut was Prasanth Ullatti and he cleaned up 2 of the middle order batsman with two catches from the ever green Sherbo. How he actually managed to catch the ball with the way he stumbled up to it amazed even himself.
With Gavin claiming the wicket of their dangerous captain from a sublime catch from the skipper the game was always under control of the Aliens attack. With the game wrapped up Damon continued his strengthening work and bowled what turned out to be the last over of innings cleaning up the number 11 and breaking the bail in process. Hopefully the other teams in our division will read this as our best bowler and MVP 2009 was bowling of 5 yards yet still had far too much pace for the fjord batsman.
Overall a good night’s work for the midweek side and a very happy stand in skipper.