League Match 8: Aliens vs Lindeberg Cricket Club
A safe pouch behind the stump off a nick of the very first ball from mark started things off for our clash with Lindeberg at Rommen. The ex-alien batsman claiming that he always likes to start things off with a four (or a nick in this case). Mark kept it tight for the first spell as always, while Aliens gave away plenty at the other end. Dennis shared the new ball in while Damon was riding waves in Portugal and decided to test the batsman with some short stuff. The make-shift opener for lindeberg, Abdulla, liked it short and was waiting for almost every ball on the backfoot. Aliens kept it short and he kept cutting and playing square. They raced away to a brilliant start. With a flurry of boundaries including a hattrick of fours in the second over.
Mark on the other was getting rewarded for his stump to stump line and cleaned up the no,3 batsman in the 5th over. Benan came on for Dennis, and Aliens started to pull things back with some line and length bowling. Mark getting in a wicket maiden in to reduce them to 62/3 after 9th. The turning point of the match came in Marks next over, where a trap was set for the batsman hanging back and him taking the bait, only to see Shahabaz over run and spill a straight forward chance at long off (refer to whatsapp group for a selected of jokes about what an absolute peach of a season he had this season), Abdulla tull full toll of the reprieve and scored 30 off the next two overs.
Captain turned to some spin and turned to Harry and Matt. Matt getting lindebergs wicket number 4 in the 14th over while Abdulla going strong at the other end bringing up his fifty soon and racing past his 100. The fifth wicket partnership was crossed the 100 mark as well, while the introduction of Arif, Shahabaz or the re-introduction of Dennis did nothing to stem the runs. Man of the season Marcus ended the fifth and sixth wicket partnership in the 28th over with double-strikes, including the wicket of Abdulla for 147, but the damage was already done. Lindeberg finishing with 294/7 after 30. Mark and Markus finishing with 3 wickets each, while the others finished with double digit economy rates.
Aliens lost Marcus early in the chase, who walked out to open with harry, his new opening partner. Dennis joined Harry in the middle and started playing some shots. Aliens were soon reduced to 17/2, when harry was out caught in the fourth over. Matt joined Dennis in the middle and started cautiously, but was cleaned up by a slower bowl in the 6th over. Dennis kept the runrate up, but kept losing partners at the other end. Shahabaz to perish next edging to slip off the skiddy offspinner. Massive blow came in the form of a questionable LBW decision against Dennis in the 10th over. Aliens slipping to 55/5 , 39 of them coming of Dennis’s bat including a sweetly timed six. Mitch and Sunil combined in the middle and the latter opted for a very cautious approach, which one can only imagine was inspired by MSD in recent years.
Mitch played some shots and the pair bought up their 50 run partnership. The asking rate kept climbing and with 8 overs to go and just when Sunil was shifting it to another gear (with over 20 runs per over needed), heavens opened and players all retracted to the pavilion/wooden stand/leaky porch. The rain break never ended and the captains shook hands soon and aliens vowed to get one back in the return fixture.