Eliteserien Match 11: Aliens vs City
When: 16 August
Where:
In its quest to stay afloat in the elite league, the Aliens Cricket Club had to win all its remaining matches and they started off in that quest against the team reeling at the bottom of the table, City Cricket Club. To start of things, the Aliens skipper David won the toss and chose to bat on a bright and sunny afternoon at the small Rommen ground. It seemed like a wrong decision, when the City spearhead, Mehboob Abid removed the openers Marcus and Mitchell in no time. A partnership of sorts was required. Dennis and Waqar played sensibly for a while, up until Waqar was run out and the City skipper Babar Tanwir had Dennis, who was tring to up the ante. Things looked gloomy when cluster of wickets fell around the skipper, who was trying to hang in, inspite of the mayhem happening at the other end. In went Steve, and started batting nonchalantly disposing off the bad deliveries every now and then. Together with the skipper at other end, Steve knit up a belligerent partnership that started to make the score look a bit more imposing. David and Steve ended up with well made half centuries and the icing on the cake was provided by Damon, who despite being injured, made a 23 ball 43 that included 7 hits to the fence. Aliens ended up with a respectful 228 from 40 overs, which at one stage looked like a distant dream.
The City openers started of positively, especially Majid who was toying with anything pitched short. Waqar bowled Saqib Khan with a peach. In came, the league’s highest run scorer and the ever consistent Ehtsham ul Haq and went about the process in a very casual manner. Kassar and Ehtsham started to look dangerous and scored at will, when that, for me the ‘moment of the match’ happened. Dennis who looked somewhat ok till then, produced a gem of a delivery, that pitched on off and just moved in to peg back the middle stump dismissing Ehtsham one short of his half century. That changed the complexion of the match and the City batsmen started to panic with the asking rate increasing after every over. The skipper handed over the ball to Damon, who again put his hands up and cleaned up the tail in no time, bowling slow left hand spinners. The City innings ended at 194 in 34 overs and the Aliens returned a jubilant lot, having done their work well enough to win the game but having their task cut out in the remaining 4 matches.