Vålerenga vs Aliens, SL (Div 1) Match 2
Vålerenga won the toss and elected to bat. They got of to a very quick start with some aggressive strokeplay and a hefty dose of luck early on whilst the field was up. Racing to 50 off just the first 5.
Aliens struck back with curtesy of some wickets to Tom, Dennis and 2 to Sushil in the overs before drinks. These wickets coupled with some tight bowling from our spinners Dave and Gareth brought us back into the game.
We didn’t quite take the wickets we needed to whilst they were under pressure in the middle overs, the Vålerenga batters keeping some wickets to spare for a quick finish. They ended up on 218 which was somewhat less than it could’ve been after their lightning start but still was a decent total for us to try and chase. Hightlights of the bowling was 4 wickets to Sushil and the super tight bowling from our spinners to drag us back into it- bowling that deserved a lot more than 1 wicket between them.
We started off well enough with the bat but just behind the runrate. We had some setbacks with wickets after the power play was over which held us back but still were still in with a shot at 3-80 after 15 needing approximately 130 off the remaining 20.
Tom came to the crease and joined our opener Pratik and set about building a great partnership. They put on 110 runs together and the required run rate was slowly but surely creeping downwards making this seem within our grasp. If only the pair could see it through! Wasn’t to be though, unfortunately in a quest to keep things ticking over we lost both batsmen in the 30th over. Tom for a well made 44 and Pratik a brilliant 90 playing shots all over the ground. This deserved to be a match winning innings but unfortunately with the 2 set batsmen out in quick succession the new batters weren’t able to keep up the required rate. Our six hitting options Sushil and Benan both fell cheaply signalling the end of our challenge. We ended up falling ten runs short. A decent effort with the bat but we just weren’t able to match Vålerengas firepower in the final overs to get ourselves over the line.