When: 04 JUN 2015

Where: Rommen

City Cricket Club 259/8 (35.0 ov)

Aliens Cricket Club 238/7 (35.0 ov)

City Cricket Club - Won by 21 runs

See the scorecard at CricHQ

A windy but beautiful sunny summer day welcomes both captains on the pitch for a toss at 2:45 PM. Winning the toss City decides to bat first. Aliens CC walks onto the field with only 8 players, but despite that Crawford and Benan are disciplined and on target. First breakthrough comes as Usman plays all over an inswinging ball from Benan and umpire is convinced he was lbw.

Etsham walks in at number 3 for City who immediately starts to cut and pull to lift the run rate, and after a few decent shots he nicks a brilliant ball from Dennis which finds the safe gloves of Mitch behind the stumps and all Aliens close fielders run in to celebrate but the Umpire has some other plans and denies the appeal. Perhaps too much to ask in a world where even test cricketers sometimes nick one but don`t walk off, but Etsham being National team opener should have really walked off as a gentleman but I guess he was more concerned about his statistics than conscience?

To stop their rapidly moving scoreboard Crawford brings Dave into the action. Dave bowls a very tight first over giving them all sorts of trouble. This bowling change proves the right one when Dave breaks the partnership of around 60 runs catching Kassar off his own bowling. With a license to kill (as not given out earlier) Etsham decides to make the most out of it and plays all over the park. Crawford calls on leg spin with Ahmad who starts off to a decent start stopping Etsham playing freely but then, into his 3rd over he gets some beating, and I guess what they is true that leg spinner needs to be skippers best buddy if he doesn`t want to be taken off after just 1 expensive over.

Sudesh, playing his first game of the season is introduced into the attack and starts off beautifully giving the batsmen all sorts of trouble with his good length and bounce. This change pays off quickly as Etsham goes big on the midwicket but doesn`t get all off it and Ahmad takes a decent running catch at deep midwicket, time to finally walk off to the dressing room for Mr. Etsham. A lot of damage is already done, and at the other end Butt keeps on relying on the 1 shot he has in his arsenal and keeps on sweeping anything and everything, so much so that he ends up being the top scorer for City. I have never before witnessed a batsman make 65 off just 1 shot from first ball to his last.

Though Sudesh can`t stop their run flow and goes for 9.5 runs an over he still manages to send 4 of City`s players off to the dressing room bowling 2-3 perfect deliveries every over. He ends up with 5 overs 46 and bags 4 wickets. Boxy replaces him on that end and starts off with brave leg spins, though he too gets the stick but in that process Butt falls victim to his good length ball and Crawford takes a well-judged catch at deep mid-on. City manages to post a very good total of 259 in their 35 overs with 8 wickets down, a total that is not well above par at a smallish ground of Rommen but still tricky enough to force the opposition into never letting it go off the hook.

Dave and Marcus open the batting for Aliens in pursuit of 260 runs, and they both keep their cool and get off to a careful yet purposeful start. Always feeling the sword of almost 8 runs an over required rate hanging over their heads they are bound to take sharp singles and convert some into doubles. Marcus who played a beautiful pull off the second over is looking good and they both decide to escalate the run rate, but in the process Marcus finds himself a few inches short of his crease while running a second run. An unfortunate end to a decent opening partnership finds Ahmad in the middle of the action at number 3. His instinct and desire to cut the ball off to the very first ball only finds safe hands of the first slip and he has to follow Marcus in the dugout even before Marcus manages to take his pads off.

Skipper walks in while trying to shake off the fact that his side just lost 2 wickets in 2 balls, and boy did he manage that in some class and style. Crawford starts off middling the ball from the word go. Focused, careful, yet productive he makes sure ones are converted into two`s and two`s into three`s. Dave is still there and looking good and he is completely in it with the skipper making sure they run in hard and safe. They even manage to run 4 runs and that wasn`t even an overthrow. Just when Dave was looking decent as always, in hunt of an easy single he manages to hit one too well straight into the hands of short mid-off and once again he falls after having done all the hard work and making it to the 20`s.

Dennis joins the skipper and gives him support from the non-strikers end; though not as brisk as Dave he still tries his best to run in hard with his skipper. Dennis, who just went in well aware of the ticking time bomb of the required run rate unfortunately falls victim to a total blinder of a catch at cow corner where the fielder who never looked like catching this one manages to juggle one anyway. Dennis joins the elite ”duck” club with Ahmad and leaves the ground without bothering the scorer.

Mitch, who is still desperately looking to find his form with the bat walks in at a difficult and demanding time, not the perfect time to walk in and join an in form skipper when team requires over 9 runs an over and 2 of the top order batsmen went for a duck. But what a way to find his form back, Mitch rises up to the occasion and plays confidently and gives good support to Crawford who is still there and going strong and is already into his 60`s off just 40 odd balls. Mitch makes sure he gets at least a single off every ball he faces so that Crawford can play the way he is playing. Though the run rate was never below 9 since over number 10, Crawford still keeps that within the reach by hitting all over the park with double figure boundaries. Mitchell, who now looks much more relaxed and comfortable, decides to have a go at it only to find a fielder at deep square leg who takes a great running catch.

Steve is called upon to join Crawford and try to pull Aliens out of trouble. He responds very well to this call and hits a couple of very well timed boundaries. But in the end he too finds himself short of his crease trying to run a second run due to required run rate pressure. At this point that creeps up to 13 an over, and Sudesh who has had a great day with the ball, claiming 4 wickets earlier joins his skipper to see if it can be his day with the bat too. In the meantime Crawford hits his 10th boundary and the whole Aliens dressing room walks up to the boundary line to congratulate him for his first hundred for the club in just about 70 odd balls. An innings nothing short of pure brilliance and determination. His effort is also equally appreciated by City players who walk up to him 1 by 1 and congratulate.. It was the highlight of the day, everyone enjoyed this great and to be remembered knock by the skipper, he never got the support he deserved from his top and middle order but nevertheless a truly captain`s innings that deserves appreciation and name on the Wall of fame aka ”Honors Board” for the Aliens CC.

So close, yet so far. This pretty much sums up our season so far, with 3 out of 5 games going right down to the wire and where Aliens CC unfortunately find themselves just short losing all extremely close games. Lessons learnt, we will only get better from here and bounce back. Nevertheless many great things happened on the field today, Crawford played the innings of his life, Sudesh gets 4 wickets in his first game of the season and overall body language was great and spirits of all team members were high. We played like a team, we fought like a team. Only if the top order had more luck, and all 11 players were on field from the first ball we would have chased 259 for sure.