T20 Game 2: Aliens vs Minhaj Cricket Club
The third game of the 2019 season was a T20 match against Minhaj, a division three team. This would be the second T20 for Aliens in this year’s cup. Threating rain had cleared to sunny but blustery conditions, typical of Ekeberg 1. Minhaj had won the toss and elected to have a bat. Mark and Damon shared the new ball keeping Minhaj’s batsmen to a modest start. Damon got the breakthrough in the 3 rd over, the batman caught plumb in front. Early season rust meant that a few catches went begging in the first half of the game. Pete came on as the first change bowler and was keen to unleash his bouncer which he has been working on all winter. On this first attempt, the batsman lost sight of it and got stuck on the helmet. Pete had a cheesy grin, any pace bowler would be happy. He then picked up two wickets in his spell, both bowled with low full tosses. As ever, Harry bowled a good line with good flight. Mitch showed his class behind the stumps with two stumpings off Harry’s bowling, the second, a clever piece of cricket, waiting a split second for the batsman to drift out of his crease. Branson had a few chances put down off his bowling in the deep, his first Aliens wicket seeming like it would not happen today. He then bowled a length ball that nipped in off the seam to beat the batsman’s expansive drive, taking the top of middle and leg. He would then be in the thick of the action again; the batsman dropping the ball short off Marks bowling. Branson swooped in from square leg and with a sharp throw to the bowlers end, missed the stumps. However Mark was well positioned, the ball smashed into his shins and ricocheted back into the stumps with the batsman well short of his ground. Marcus, Mark and Damon collected a further wicket a piece to finish off the innings; Minhaj made a gettable 146/8 from their 20 overs.
Mitch and Mo opened the batting for Aliens. Minhaj’s opening bowler proved difficult to get away, with clever changes of pace, from slow lollipops to sharp rising bouncers. Mitch wore two of these sharp bouncers on the helmet, having lost sight of the ball. Mo soon departed bowled in the third over with the score 16/1. Gavin was next in but soon out, bowled for 1. Achal and Mitch were soon back in the hut, both run out, Mitch making 22. It was then up to David and Marcus to rebuild the innings with some good running between the wickets, turning singles into doubles. David was trapped LBW to leave the score 63/5 at the end of the 12 th . Harry then joined Marcus and they continued to take the fight back to the Minhaj bowlers until the 16 th over when Harry defended a length ball with the ball dropping at his toes. He then completed a perfectly executed tipple pirouette looking for the ball. The opposition fielder casually threw down the stumps, Harry mid twirl, out for 9. Damon joined Marcus in the middle however Marcus was soon out caught in the deep for 39. His words when he arrived back in the hut, ‘that was the only shot I middled’. Damon expertly shepherded Mark spanking a few 4s in his total of 23 off 14 balls, however we left it a bit too late; 135/7 off 20. Having lost the first T20, this second loss meant that we were out of the cup for 2019.