Eliteserien Match 9: Aliens Cs Sentrum
The Aliens arrived after a long drive to Drammen to face a Sentrum team with a few national players either missing or tired from national duty. We had our very own Damon Crawford arriving back from their tournament in England.
After losing the toss we were given the ball to see what damage we could do, on a sometimes overcast, weird Norwegian day. Waqar took the first over and in the fourth ball of the day we got a break through, clean bowled!! I personally remember, back in our winter training days, of him learning that beaut of a ball for a left hander in the in swinging Yorker or close enough. To a right hander that is. He would eventually take 4 wickets for the match to go with his many season wickets to date! Sentrum began to bore us with a very slow run rate and very few boundaries. Dennis, also picking up a wicket in his opening spell, which could have been 2 if our captain hadn’t dropped an easy catch, by his standards, early on. First change bowler was Crawfo and he did a wonderful job of keeping the Sentrum batsmen quiet. Although wicketless, his left armers were difficult to handle and if not for some sloppy fielding his economy of 4.3 runs per over would have been even lower. While at the other end, a surprise package in Mitch delivered one of the spells of the season! A dropped catch by a hungover Rich may have been the difference for his 5 for but none-the-less a superb catch by Will just before drinks made amends for this. Mitchell and Will would again combine for another Aliens wicket once play resumed. More wickets tumbled and more slow play by the batsmen and our skipper was on for a bowl, going at a tidy economy of 3.5. After Mitch tore apart the middle order (4/29) Waqar came on and finished off Sentrum, who ended up being bowled out for 133 in 36 overs, in which only 8 boundaries were scored despite playing on a smallish ground.
So the Aliens began the run chase of a small but tricky total of 134 to win. James and Mitch opened up the batting and both fell cheaply. In came Will Barton and playing in, what I think, the best fashion of going after the bowling. And that he did. It did take 4 wickets but he found a partner to stay at the crease with him… Or momentarily as he would succumb to injury. Much to the delight of the opposition as they were lost as to where to bowl to him. Joe continued to play with freedom and kept going about his business in fine fashion. He and Dennis looked rather comfortable at the wicket until that partnership was broken and the rest of the innings headed south with a combination of some silly shot selection and some half decent bowling. Waqar looked as if maybe we were in with a chance but once again a breakthrough came when Rich was run out attempting a suicidal second run. Boxy defended as only he knows how, and our final wicket fell when Waqar, going for the big shot, was caught in the deep. Will returned to the crease and played, what I thought, a nice straight shot but was in to much pain to continue. It was all over.
So an Aliens loss that really could have been prevented. A great bowling display, but a lackluster batting performance cost us. Special mentions to Will for going out again to bat while under pain. (a torn muscle was the verdict). Things are looking up for Aliens cricket with a lot of promise shown and some consistent results not far away. Join us next time for Richies match reports :p