When: 18 May

Where: Ekeberg 2

Aliens - 127/9 off 40 overs.

Kolsås - 121/10 off ?

Aliens won by 6 runs.

What follows here is a rendition of the greatest Aliens victory yet. Never before have the Aliens been in so much trouble and managed to bounce back and win. Being part of any winning game makes me proud to be an Alien, but this one was something special. This one showed that even if we’re almost down and out, we’ve still got more than enough fight left in us to win.

The match was scheduled for 09:15 on the 18th of May, something which probably put us at a slight disadvantage knowing how some of our players enjoy the odd celebratory tipple. Surprisingly everyone turned up on time and there wasn’t any real evidence of any hangovers. Ekeberg II was slightly damp, but was bathed in brilliant sunshine with temperatures securely over 20C. Captain Dave lost the toss and we were sent into bat for the first time this year.

Things couldn’t have gone much worse, with our in form batting superstar, Pratheesh (0) nicking his 3rd ball to the keeper. Aliens were 0-1. Next in was Drew Eakin (1), who last batted at number 3 for the Aliens sometime around the turn of the century. Drew started well, turning his first ball to midwicket for a sharp single. Any confidence we got from that stroke was immediately destroyed when Sunil (0) edged his first delivery, a rising bouncer outside off, to 2nd slip. Aliens were 1-2. Mitch De Beurs (7) was next in and saw out the rest of an eventful opening over. Things didn’t improve much in the second over when Drew was yorked and we lost our 3rd wicket. Aliens were 1-3 and in some pretty deep shit. Jamie (11) was the next man in and with 38.5 overs still left to play, he and Mitch decided to forget about scoring runs and concentrate on stopping the deluge of wickets. This partnership lasted about 8 overs, before Mitch top edged a pull shot to the keeper. Marcus Lyon (15) was in at number 6 with the score at about 20-4. Unfortunately this partnership didn’t last long, when Jamie played around a straight ball and got bowled. Aliens were 23-5. Next in was Waqar, who was playing his first game of the season. Waqar (8) looked confident and wasn’t afraid to play his shots. He and Marcus put on about 20 together before Waqar was out bowled. This brought the captain to the crease, who looked decidedly grumpy about the progress so far. Dave (25 off 62) and Marcus batted sensibly together, picking up singles and the odd 2 to keep the scoreboard ticking over slowly. Marcus perished shortly after playing a beautiful clip off his toes for 4, when he was deceived by the pitch and presented an easy catch to one of the close in fielders. In walked Damon Crawford (28) who batted brilliantly along with Dave and really turned the innings around. When they got together, we were 64-7 and staring down the barrel. Every block was applauded and every run was cheared. The two batsmen batted out the next 16 overs together, ensuring that we could survive our full 40 and get us within reach of a defendable score. Dave and Damon really got us out of some deep trouble and put on about 50 before Dave was run out by a sharp throw from cover. Opera Dave (5*) was next in with our score on 109-8 off 35 overs. He and Craw batted for the next few overs, getting valuable singles and keeping us in the hunt. Damon finally got out in the 29th over, trying to squeeze in a few boundaries before the finish. Our last man in was Sudesh (2*) and he and Dave made sure we batted out our full allotment of overs. Being able to finish our 40 overs was a monumental achievement, considering we were 5 down after about 10 overs. This was very largly thanks to some sensible batting from our middle and lower order. In the end, Aliens posted 127-9 off their 40 overs.

With Jamie promising to buy the first round of drinks if we won, our left arm seamers, Damon and Waqar, opened the bowling and started off well bowling a tight line outside off stump. Kolsås got off to a pretty good start, hitting about 25 off the first 6 overs. Damon was bowling particularly well and was unlucky when an inside edge was dropped by Jamie, low to his left. Thankfully it didn’t cost us much since Damon induced another edge, which was held by Mitch at 2nd slip, after a brief juggle. The 2nd wicket fell shortly after, when their other opener tried to smash Damon over mid off, only to find Dave who held on to a sharp catch diving forward. Damon bowled his full 8 overs, finishing with about 2-24, which could easily have been 5-24 had all the chances been held. Damon and Waqar were replaced by Pratheesh and Dave, who kept up the pressure by not giving away any easy runs and taking regular wickets. Dave’s first ball was a slow full toss, which their set number 4 managed to miss and get bowled. The Aliens were showing some real energy in the field, throwing themselves around to stop singles and generating plenty of noise. It was great to see that everyone really believed we could win this. With Dave and Pratheesh giving little away, chances came and were taken. Kolsås lost regular wickets and were 70-6 after 20 overs. The captain’s drinks break speech focused on us not getting complacent and keeping up the energy until the game was won. The 7th wicket fell in the first over after drinks when Jamie snatched a thin edge of Dave’s bowling, to have Kolsås 70-7, not much different from where we were earlier in the day. Kolsås didn’t go down without a fight though, when their numbers 8 and 9 batted sensibly and put on about a 40 run partnership. Mitch, Dave and Waqar bowled well throughout the partnership, beating the edge regularly or having shots just bobbling out the the reach of fielders. The breakthough finally came when Mitch, tempted the batsman into a rash shot which was skied to Dave at long off. When that ball was hit, it was hit high and the whole field when silent. It seemed like ages, but the ball finally came down and was securely taken by Dave, for his 2nd catch of the day. At this stage, Kolsås needed about 20 runs off 7 overs to win. Mitch took the 9th wicket as well, when he snuck one past the bat and onto middle stump. Kolsås needed 15 off 5 overs. These were tense times, with Kolsås picking up singles and getting ever closer to the target. Dave finished his spell and asked Marcus to warm up, facing the prospect of coming on with only a small handful of runs to defend. Marcus wasn’t needed though because Mitch tempted out another glory shot, which was again excellently held by Dave at long off. The Aliens won by 6 runs!

Although it was a grand team effort to win, special mention must go to Dave and Damon who batted us out of some serious trouble and then bowled and fielded brilliantly. Dave ended up with 25 runs, 3 wickets and 3 catches whereas Damon ended with 28 runs and 2 wickets for almost nothing.

I apologize if there are any errors and for the lack of bowling figures, but the scorecard hasn’t been published yet.