T20 Championship (Div 2) Match 5 vs Stabekk CK
When: 30th July, 2024
Where: Ekeberg 1
Aliens Ck 138/5 20.0 /20 ov
Stabekk Ck 76/10 16.5 /20.0 ov
Aliens Ck won by 62 Run(s)
Aliens: 138/5 (20 overs)
(Pratik 60, Avra 32, Hasan Imam 2-17)
It was a case of déjà vu all over again for Stabekk, as one month after the Aliens visited Rud and dispensed a thrashing, they were on the receiving end again. Once again it was Pratik setting the pace too. Faced with the usual slow Rud outfield, he dispensed entirely with it, slamming three huge sixes over midwicket/mid on in the opening ten overs. Pratik reached his fifty off 37 balls and ended on 60 off 43, eventually holing out at long on just inside the (never-ending) boundary. At the other end, Avra silkily composed an innings of 32 off 45, where is biggest enemy was the long Rud grass that prevented him hitting any boundaries. The pair add 104 in total, a century opening partnership courtesy of a bizarre incident early on when a Stabekk fielder forgot the post-Covid rules about adding saliva to the ball, resulting in a 5-run penalty.
Avra eventually had his stumps rearranged by Shahid Mahmood, but the middle order kept things ticking over at a run-a-ball. In the desire for quick runs, Dennis fell for 5 (under-edging an expansive drive), Branson for 13 (edging a hoick across the line) and Milton for 5 (run out off the last ball). Dave was unbeaten on 5*.
Stabekk: 76 all out (16.5 overs)
(Tom 3-4, Damon 2-4, Gareth 2-5)
With the sluggish Rud outfield, 138 was probably worth about fifty runs more on a friendlier ground for batting. Stabekk needed to make things happen, but instead their innings instantly fell into a tailspin. Damon nicked off their opener Jabar Maqsood second ball. Next over Ali Haider played around a swinging deliver from Tom and was LBW for 1. The third over Aqib Javid toe-ended a Crawford yorker to depart LBW. And off the final ball of the third over, Milton fired a fine direct hit run-out from midwicket after Zuber Imran sent back Nagaraj.
4/4 off just 3 overs, Stabekk were probably wondering if things could get any worse. Well, they could! A double wicket maiden from Tom – Muhammad Naveed bowled middle-stump for a duck swinging across the line, then Zishan Ahmed Ramzan also failing to trouble the scorers. This time Tom’s hooping away swing delivery thumped into off stump as Ramzan gave himself too much room. 4/6 from 4 overs and the Stabekk dugout was carnage full of batsmen scrabbling around getting padded and unpadded.
Gareth picked up the next two wickets to fall, Zuber Imran holing out to Damon in the deep off a suspiciously high full toss. Then Hasan Imam was bowled for a duck by a ball that pitched leg and hit the top of off. It probably turned nearly half a foot, but by the time Gareth was recounting this wicket in the Viking Burger post-match debrief this had increased to one foot and by the time he gets around to telling his grandkids it will be fully a yard. Any remaining video evidence should be destroyed to preserve this precious memory.
Some fruitful lower-order hitting saw Stabekk more than double their score from 30/8 to 63 before the next wicket fell. Marcus having the dangerous Abdul Sattar caught in the deep by Milton for 21. It was a fine comeback from Marcus, having managed to twist his ankle, knee and hip into unnatural positions the previous over desperately stretching for a caught and bowled chance. Dave took the last wicket to fall, Iftkhar for 24, falling in to the spinners trap of hitting a full toss to deep midwicket. All in all, as comprehensive as victories get.