T20 Oslo 2021 Match 4: Aliens vs Vestli C
With the rain having fallen nearly all week, and the forecast suggesting more of the same, it was somewhat of a surprise to wake to a grey but fairly dry Saturday morning at Ekeberg. The outfield was fairly dry and we were suddenly playing cricket.
Vestli won the toss and chose to bowl, Aliens got off to a steady if unspectacular start with Marcus and Anshul ticking the score along to 43 inside the first 8 overs, before both fell in quick succession. After that it was pretty much a one man show as Dennis rattled along 9this was not an outfield in the batsman favour) to 52 from just 37 balls before he was out with an over to go. The rest chipped in as best they could and made sure Dennis faced as much of the strike as possible to allow us to finish up on 129. Nothing spectacular but a very defendable score with the large boundaries at EK2 and the slowness of the outfield.
After about 15 minutes break, it was Dennis (and Paul) who took the attack to Vestli, an uneventful first 4 overs lead to the introduction of Benan, who picked up the first wicket of the day with a legside long hop that the batsman generously gloved down the legside allowing Ankush to take a smart catch.
For a period after this very little happened, Vestli ticked along at a rate below the RRR, and with an awareness that increasing the scoring rate would be very difficult, Aliens to a degree allowed them to do so. It wasn't until the 14th over that the second wicket fell, an attempted run on an overthrow leading to a run out.
The 3rd wicket to 'fall' was an interesting one, with the number 4 batsman swinging himself near off his feet at every ball Dave M and Peter bowled, but connecting with very few, their captain decided he'd seen enough and told him to retire (although the official reason given was breathing difficulties, probable not that smartest ruse in Covid times!).
There was still time for Big Dave to back a first couple of poles for the season, and another pair of runouts, but the Vestli chase faded out long before the final overs. They were incidentally ahead on comparative scores until the 14th over (and had lost a wicket less), but lacked a set batsman who was able to accelerate in the way Dennis did in our innings.