Div 2 Round 12: Aliens Vs Fossum
When: 13 AUG 2016
Where: Stubberudmyra
Fossum Cricket Club 176/4 (19.1 ov)
Aliens Cricket Club 170/3 (27.0 ov)
Fossum Cricket Club - Won by 6 wickets
Enduring a week of typical Norwegian summer rain, both teams arrived at the match uncertain if the ground would be able to host a game. Indeed, there have been swamplands more suitable for cricket matches but after an hour of sponging up standing water in the outfield, the game was on. The overs were reduced to 27 a side and our intrepid captain put the aliens in to bat. Hoping that the sun would dry the outfield during the innings, giving our bowlers more to work with later in the day.
The opening pair, Simon Gazdowiczt and David Kuhlwilm, managed to see some of the shine off the ball with Gazdowicz eventually being bowled clean for a tough fought 8 off 31 balls. Dennis Peter strode to the crease and immediately made the openers look average. Peter accelerated the run-rate with some sublime boundaries while Kuhlwilm batted around the form player. A classic hesitant Kuhlwilm off-drive saw him lob one to point after drinks and he departed for 23 off 41 balls. Damon Crawford came in next, and the combination of Crawford’s running between the stumps and Peter’s flourishing off-side drives meant a solid partnership continued into the 25th over. It seems that Crawford had run the captain off his feet and he retired in the 25th over calling an unsuspecting Daniel Hollick to the crease for the final two overs. Crawford and Hollick managed to keep the strike on rotation and the Aliens ended their innings on 170/3, a respectable total given the conditions.
The opposition strode in to bat with Crawford and Tariq Omar opening the bowling. Tariq struck in his first over with a catch lobbing up to Hollick and mid-on. A sly change in bowling, early in the innings led to Marcus Lyon, the veteran Aliens cricketer, being brought on. His tricky pace and clever bowling earned him the next two wickets. At this point Fossum were 52-3 after 8.1 overs and the Aliens looked on top. Next strode in Fossum’s youngster Hayatullah Niazi. He started slowly but eventually began an onslaught. He used his trademark leg-side heave to send the bowler’s fetching to cow-corner, seldom landing inside the ropes. The only reprieve from this onslaught was Toufiq Omar bowling the opening batsmen, who had hung around in a supporting role. Nazi went on to score 72 off 24 balls, including 8 sixes and 2 fours with a Strike Rate of 300. Fossum reached their target in 19.1 overs, but not before a superb piece of bowling from Benan John. The captain calling on Benan to bowl his first over of the match when Fossum were just 1 run away from victory. Unbelievably Benan bowled the only maiden of the innings before a six off the first ball of the next over secured the match for Fossum.
