Div 1 Match 6: Aliens vs Strømsø
When: 14 JUN 2015
Where: Stubberudmyra
Aliens Cricket Club 205/9 (34.4 ov)
Strømsø Cricket Club 204/9 (31.0 ov)
Aliens Cricket Club - Won by 1 wicket
On a cloudy Sunday afternoon Aliens won the toss and put Strømsø in to bat. They started aggressively with a couple early boundaries but soon their luck ran out with Dennis hanging onto a decent catch off Damon to dismiss the Strømsø captain in the second over. This is the sort of catch that Aliens haven’t held on to at times this season so hopefully this was a sign of things to come.
Another wicket from Damon followed soon after by a wicket from Steve rewarding some tight bowling really had Strømsø on the ropes at 3-36.
However this brought to the crease their inform player U Shaukat who started quickly with a series of boundaries. The captain was looking for solutions and turned to his spinners. However the timing proved to be a touch off as the rain started soon after making it hard for Dave and Ahmad to hold on to the ball. Mr. Shaukat kept batting well and had the Aliens on the back foot.
The captain put down the form batsman on the boundary to earn the dubious honor of writing this report. This would’ve been a good reward for Benan who had bowled some tight overs tile that point and deserved a wicket. It took some great fielding from Steve in the deep taking a great running catch to finally end the innings of Shaukat for 93.
Ahmad chimed in with 2 wickets to slow the scoring and getting a reward despite the tricky conditions for spinners.
The captain came back on and courtesy of some wonderful wicket keeping from Simon Gazdowicz (written just to prove to myself that I finally can spell it right after writing it wrong on the match sheet a few times) managed to snare 3 quick wickets caught behind. Steve also came back on to take a wicket, the late flurry of wickets putting a brake on the Strømsø scoring leaving the Aliens a challenging but makeable total of 205 to win.
Until this game we were lacking some early contenders for catch of the year however Steves running grab in the outfield and Simon’s diving effort are both worthy efforts.
Dave and Marcus opened the innings and successfully negotiated the early overs knowing the wet weather would kill any swing pretty quickly. Just as they looked to up the scoring the two openers decided to imitate the week’s comedy youtube video by running into each other and then have fielders run around like pork chops trying to get the runout. This seemed to be the spark that Marcus needed as he started to time the ball a bit better. The spark died though when Marcus played on soon after.
Dave however got the scoreboard ticking over with some aggressive driving. He and Damon built a steady partnership which put the Aliens ahead of the DL projection as the rain repeatedly threatened to take over. Their 80 run partnership had Aliens at 2-133 and we looked to be cruising until Damon was the victim of some great fielding by the Strømsø keeper to be run out for 35. Disaster struck as Dave followed soon after picking the mid-off fielder out. A great innings from Dave to make a 75 from 68 just when Aliens needed it.
However, with 2 new batsmen at the crease the good ship Aliens was teetering a little. Wickets were falling a semi regular intervals and we couldn’t quite get a good partnership going. Steve hit a boundary and a six in quick succession to get things in better order and some confidence was restored until a slightly dubious thighpad before wicket decision knocked us back again.
This brought Benan to the crease with Mitch, the pair needing 20 runs off the last 5 overs. Sunil was operating on one leg so we were hoping he wasn’t required but with Mitch being caught on the boundary for 16 Sunil manned up and got out there.
Benan showed great composure under considerable pressure and steadily worked 1’s and 2’s to keep us in the hunt whilst Sunil hobbled around. The umpire finally called mercy and allowed a runner for Sunil, so out came Simon on his ice skates. Benan had things under control though knocking great boundary down the ground followed by a single to keep the strike for the last over. Aliens required 2 off the last over. Ice man Benan couldn’t quite get bat on ball for the first 3 balls to give those on the sidelines a bit of a heart flutter.. but he hit the 4th ball off the over past midwicket and now that Simon had switched his ice skates for running spikes he called Benan back for the second and Aliens earnt themselves a very exciting last over victory.
We’ve been improving steadily and lost a couple close ones so its great to see us finally coming out on top. We had lots of contributors in different areas- Sunil providing lots of enthusiasm and energy in the field, Simon taking some great catches, Damons 5 for and Daves nice 70 odd. Last mention has to go to Benan though for keeping his head in a tough situation and bringing us home.
Good work lads. Let’s keep up the good spirit.