Game 5: Aliens vs Haugenstua
Where: Stubberudmyra
All right! match report then. at Stabberudmyra (Ikea backyard)
NCF´s cunning plan of squeezing in 3 matches a day saw us reporting to the ground half an hour earlier than scheduled. Not that anybody complained, Hinchey even suggesting that we could´ve started two hours earlier to beat the heat. “Afrikavarmen” meant that it was a balmy morning with the forecast of the mercury hitting 31 later in the day. The warm-up football match saw the “postman” peter hitting the post from distances ranging from 1 to 5 meters and Sunil stealing the ball from the other team by swearing that he is ´on their team´ (smart!).
Meanwhile, the captain won the toss and elected to field first, the idea being that we could bowl them out cheaply before the heat kicks in- ´We´ll see about that´- said the Aliens fielders. The opening bowlers went on about to get the blood flowing in their legs and the others set about to dropping some high catches. The umpires walked in and ´let’s keep them to 140!´ yelled Dennis while the Aliens ran in with intent. Damon started proceedings from the ´reflection end´ and started the innings with a very tight over. Dennis shared the new ball with Damon from the other end. Two more relatively tight overs followed before their openers unleashed their power hitting in Dennis´s fourth over scoring 14. Their openers managing 53 in 8 overs at a very healthy run rates. The introduction of Shanta and Hinchey into the attack saw them slow down momentarily. The openers played sensibly for the next four overs to make sure they picked the variations of our spinners and then started playing their shots, mostly along the ground. Whatever they played in air saw an Aliens fielder momentarily settling under it, and then let it reunite with the ground without much resistance. Dave, Hinchey and Damon dropping one each before drinks were called. Hauganstua getting to a strong 104-0 in 15 overs.
Their opening pair continued accumulating runs and brought up their respective 50s soon after the break. Aliens bowlers had admitted to being on the shorter side and Dan executed an almost perfect over right after the break bowling full and straight and not giving their batsmen room to free their arms. This tight over resulting in one of them trying to hit Dave out of the park where Dan took a good catch in the deep (finally!). Following the wicket, Dan and Dave brought some control back to the innings by bowling wicket to wicket and full-ish lengths. Hauganstua kept accumulating runs though, before Dave trapped one of their batsmen before the wicket. The other opener kept on scoring despite wickets falling around him. Their batsman stepping on the gas from over 24. Even the re-introduction of our strike bowlers did little to stem the flow of runs. Hauganstua finishing the innings at a strong 250/4- their captain, the opening batsman stranded at 97*.
Aliens were feeling the heat- quite literally- at the break. Not much to celebrate for aliens, but the outfield was quick and the belief was high- Hope! there was. Dave and Shahabaz walked in to open the innings, Dave reluctantly taking first strike, and starting the innings with his best shot this season so far, a sweetly timed straight drive which raced to the boundary. A wild swat on the free hit saw him losing his shape and focus. Two balls later a ball that deviated from pitch took off stump. Aliens 7/1 after one. A brief partnership followed between Shahabaz and Dennis with the former shaking some of his bad form with a straight six of the third ball of the second over. Dennis looked in good touch from ball one. Smoking a sweetly timed six of a high full toss again from the same bowler who cost Dave his wicket. The bowler was banned from bowling further, but he already had Shahabaz caught in the circle attempting to hit an inside out shot, which ended up only being inside the circle and out-caught. Damon joined Dennis in the middle, but his stay was short. Damon was unfortunate to be given lbw to a ball which hit him-let’s say- not low. Shanta and Dennis continued building the Aliens innings. Both keeping the run-rate in check till the 12 th over which saw Shanta getting out caught trying to clear the infield on the off. Sunil went in next and was in a hurry to join his friends on a sailing trip. The six hitting machine collecting a golden souvenir to add to his collection. More wickets fell in between guys rushing off to buy Ice-cream to cool their heads and minds. Dan was run out attempting a two, and forgetting to ground his bat. Dennis fell in the 17th over after he got to the first fifty of the season. The scoreboard read 133/7 in 17. Asad and Mitch provided some late innings firework and Peter remained not out as Aliens were all out for 166 in the 23rd over.