Div 1 Match 7: Stabekk vs Aliens
When: 20 JUN 2015
Where: Ekeberg 1
Stabekk Cricket Klubb 144/10 (34.2 ov)
Aliens Cricket Club 148/6 (26.3 ov)
Aliens Cricket Club - Won by 4 wickets
With two wins on the bounce the ACC camp was in fine form as they arrived at Ekeberg to take on bottom placed Kolsås, knowing that a win could project them up to 2nd place. Damon won the toss and given that Kolsås had only passed 170 once all season, wasted no time in inviting them to have first use of the facilities.
It took Steve (6-0-19-3) only 10 deliveries to strike the first blow, with the young opener’s feet having been set in concrete by some back of a length bowling, he produced the old slower ball and the batsman could only watch as it floated past him and gently knocked the bails off.
Number 3 didn’t last any longer as Damon’s (6-0-26-2) stock inswinger caused him to drag on of just 5.
The wickets continued to fall to the new ball, as batsmen came and went, with none of them showing any intent to see of either the new ball, or the opening bowlers.
By the time Steve and Damon took a well-earned breather, Kolsås were already in huge trouble at 27-5. Ahmad (5-0-19-0) and Benan (5-0-20-1) were then introduced into the attack just as Kolsås’s batsman finally seemed to realise the situation they were in may require some sort of patience. This, along with some fairly misery bowling meant that Parvez and Sattar very slowly crept the score along to 63 before Benan decided enough was enough and nipped one back off the seam to castle the former.
Sattar(37) continued to dig in in his own way, with a mix of blocks and swooshes, as his partners came and went to the bowling of Mitch (7-0-25-2) and David (5.2-0-32-2), and the keeping of Simon (3c, 1s), leaving the innings closed on the 144 mark.
Captain Crawford was so confident in Victory that he allowed Damien (a player many in the press though over the hill after last season’s disappointing return) to break up Marcus and David’s excellent opening partnership. As it was the all Aussie duo did get the side off to a good start with Marcus’ hard running leaving Damien hard pushed to keep up. The pair put on 25 in just 4 overs before Marcus played the (non wankers) cut straight to point to depart for a brisk 12.
Next man up for the Aliens was Dennis, and him and a pretty tired looking Damien continued the free scoring (only with a few more boundaries, and a little less running, which both seemed pleased about) seeing ACC what looked like a very healthy 58-1 after only 9 overs of their reply.
Just as their teammates were starting to relax and plan their Saturday night though, disaster struck, with Dennis(16) knicking off to first slip, before 4 balls later Damien pushed one right into the hands of a waiting cover fielder. This left the new pair of Kuhlwilm and Clowes at the crease with neither having yet troubled the scorer. I’d love to say they got their heads down and did the hard graft that the Kolsås batsman hadn’t managed earlier, but instead James decided that hitting a couple of big sixes would soon knock the wind out of the fielding side’s sails, and succeeded only in offering a high catch to a retreating deep cover. Next to man the pumps on the slowly sinking ship was captain Crawford himself, reigning player of the year,bowler of the year, batsman of the year, national team representative, and fresh off a maiden century, surely if there was anyone who could see the side back on the route to victory it was him. Alas it was not the case as Ashraf bamboozled him with a mix of long hops, wides and no balls, before producing a straight full ball which was as well disguised as Steve’s earlier slower ball.
With 4 wickets having gone down for just 19 runs, lesser teams may have begun to allow thoughts of collapse and defeat to enter their minds, fortunately for the Aliens they have the newly arrived Simon Gazdowicz shoring up the middle order this season.
His approach to batting is as uncomplicated as his surname is easily forgotten when filling out the teamsheet and this was exactly the approach that was needed here.
Together him and Kuhlwilm slowly got things back on course before accelerating as the target came into site. Unfortunately one of them too this approach a touch too far and David (31)was dismissed trying to slog a wide long hop over cow corner with just 5 more needed for victory. This mean poor Ahmad had to come in and watch while Simon scored the required run (and tried to decapitate him), leaving him on 30*, crushingly close to winning the much desired chocolate medal that Sunil and Ingrid (who got engaged last week, congratulations from all at the club) had generously donated to the top scorer of the day.
Edited highlights (so you can see that I was largely telling the truth):