When: 29th August, 2024

Where: Ekeberg 3

Aliens Ck 145/5 19.0 /19 ov

Friends Ck 146/4 15.4 /19.0 ov

Friends Ck won by 7 Wickets

See the scorecard at CricClubs

Bowling and fielding proved to be Alien’s undoing

Rain in the afternoon, which only let up shortly before the game, combined with the quality of the drainage at Ekeberg 3, created some doubts about whether this match would actually go ahead or not.

Arriving at the pitch and realising we had a sizeable duck pond at one end, and something resembling a patch of quicksand at cover didn’t exactly put minds all that much more at ease. But as luck would have it, we had umpires that were keen for the game to take place, and with some creative boundary changes, a “fencing off” of the quicksand in place, and goose crap swept off the pitch, a 19 over game (bowling all overs from the city end) went ahead.

Aliens won the toss and elected to bat, with Tom and Jojy opening. Ball bounced aplenty to in the opening over, but having got his eye in, Tom was soon off the mark.

Unfortunately, he’s eye was all too soon “off” again and Tom was out having nipped the ball to the keeper.

Sudesh came in to replace him and set off apace; scoring the first four of the game off his second ball.

Jojy decided at this point to put the competition off by a fine piece of bravado: taking his box off and placing it neatly for all to see behind the stumps! The distraction worked and the runs started to flow. Sudesh also managing to be the first to put the ball in the drink (aka the duck pond) before he eventually got run out at 16 runs by a fine direct hit from extra cover that grazed the bails just hard enough to dislodge them.

Dave came in and soon followed up with a couple of sixes. One of which was just over the boundary rope at the shortened end – by his own admission the shortest six of his career, but they all count. Pratik better watch out in the race for the most sixes of the season!

Dave eventually got out for 20 to a ball chipped to long off where it, after a lot of fumbling, was caught.

Dennis and Damon added helpful runs before Damon retired hurt and Dennis was caught, leaving Benan (14*) and Sushil to bat out the inning. Sushil, after a slightly sluggish start finished with a flurry of runs, including 4-6-4-2 off the last four balls.

Having set a target of 146, Aliens took to the field with fair degree of optimism. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

Friends put up a good fight and ran out of the starting blocks with 16 runs in the first over, and would ultimately end up scoring 16 fours and two sixes, and Sherry getting a 50 despite sporting a slight limp.

But in all honesty, it wasn’t just down to spirited batting by Friends. A butter fingered Norwegian fielder didn’t help, and with the notable exception of Dennis’s 2-13 off 4 overs which included a wicket maiden, the bowling (with 22 wides and 3 no balls) never quite matched what Aliens had delivered with the bat.

So, on a free hit one run (caught by Tom at cow corner) towards the end of Friend’s 16th over, it was all over.

Leaving some excitement for the upcoming last match of the season.