Eliteserien Match 8: Aliens vs City
Things got off to a good start for the Aliens with yet another toss won, and captain Kuhlwilm choosing to have first use of the Ekeberg facilities.
With Mitch having left the country in disgust after his dubious caught behind in the last match it was over to a returning Devlin to see off the new cherry along with the in form Lyon. Both batsmen were looking comfortable early on but disaster struck in the 6th over as the evergreen Lyon injured his calf muscle while coming back for a speedy second. After much delibertaion he decided to continue and still outlasted Devlin who was trapped on the crease by an effort ball from Tanwir for a patient 29. Waqar(24)kets as him and Marcus (37) carried the score well past three figures before the latter was out to a sharp return catch from the rotund Rafaqat.
Next up came the standard Aliens collapse collapse as Joe was bowled for just 4, before Dennis (13) and Waqar were caught trying to clear the outfield. Just when things seemed to be recovering Butt produced 4 wickets in 5 balls to have the skipper caught behind, Hansen playing on 2nd ball, the returning Sherbo bowled first ball and Richy caught in the deep having tried to launch the hat trick ball in to the oslofjord. Fortunately we still had Boxy and Sudesh in the hutch and while Boxy wore the bowlers down with his ever solid forward defence, Sudesh cut loose at the other end and made a blistering 30* from just 23 balls to drag the score up to a possibly defendable 177.
City's reply got off to the worst possible start with Waqar (4-26) trapping Butt lbw in the first over with a booming inswinger, and Dennis (3-27) followed this up by first trapping the number 3 with an excelled fuller ball, before Usman also departed to a sharp catch from Boxall.
As if trying to imitate the excellently executed Aliens collapse, Saqib was out second ball to a tremendous catch by Richy, before Rasab padded up to yet another Waqar inswinger to leave the umpire with the simplest of decisions. There was just time enough for both bowlers to pick up one more wicket before both had finished their allotted overs, and reduced the City innings to tatters at 48-7.
City staged something of a comeback with Ikhlaq and Mehbob deciding that the best from of attack was defence and grinting their sides score slowly towards the target before the former fell to a smartly disguised slow wide full toss from the skipper(2-6), that was hit straight to Boxy, who had been placed there for just such an event.
Sudesh then had top scorer mehbob caught by Dennis for his first wicket of the season before Rafaqat returned the earlier favour by presenting Dave with a return catch to wrap up the innings for just 88.