Div 1 Match 10: United A vs Aliens
When: 11 JUL 2015
Where: Ekeberg 2
United Cricket Club A 200/6 (35.0 ov)
Aliens Cricket Club 132/9 (35.0 ov)
United Cricket Club A - Won by 68 runs
The long awaited clash between ex-Alien now United captain Pratheesh Kumar was finally upon us, the sky was clear, the sun was high and the grass was below knee height, three things quite rare in Norwegian cricket. The coin was tossed but alas we lost and a confident United captain set us the task of fielding first.
Captain Crawford took it upon himself to lead by example and opened the bowling to fellow Norway national team mate Pratheesh and what a contest it was. Crawford bowled an exellent line and length keeping the notorious hard hitting and fast scoring Pratheesh pegged down, with good support from Sudesh bowling from the other end the United openers had a hard time scoring. After only 28 runs from the first 9 overs frustration finally took it´s toll with Mitch clean bowling the other opener for only 8 runs off 24 balls, 10 runs later Sudesh struck, their number 3 hitting a catch that was well held by Suni , gone for only 8 runs as well. United started scoring freely until David came on and stemmed the run flow with some fine off-spin bowling and bagged 2 wickets in his 2nd over, one of which, a sharp caught and bowled to dismiss the United captain for only 21 off 41 balls. The United nr.4 came in and was dropped early and then at regular intervals thoughout his innings, something that would cost us dearly, he went on to make 83 off 68 balls and with support from his remaining team-mates brought the total to 6/200 off 35 overs .
Highlights of the Aliens effort in the field were . D. Crawford 1/12 off 7 overs ( 2 maidens ) , D. Kuhlwilm 2/28 off 7 over , some fine catching by S. Nair and an exellent run-out by B. John.
With spirits high the Aliens went about the task of chasing down a not unattainable target, but with tight bowling from the United opening pair this was not going to be easy, runs were few and hard to come by. The United bowlers and fieldsmen were on the job, holding catches, completing run outs and bowling a tight line to make Aliens batting line up look a little off par. Mitch top scored with 20, David was next highest with 18 and not many more reaching double figures. With only 10 men we were sent home to lick our wounds and stew in our mistakes with a grand total of 9 / 132, 69 runs short of our target.