Vålerenga vs Aliens, T20 (Div 2) Match 2
When: 25th June
Where:
Vålerenga 144/8 (20)
Aliens 115/7 (20)
Vålerenga won by 29 Runs
Tons of Rock bring sunshine and party atmosphere, but Aliens fall short against Vålerenga
Ekeberg basked in glorious sunshine as Aliens faced Vålerenga. Despite the sunshine, however, this being Ekeberg 3 we still somehow had to contend with puddles in the outfield. Adding to the atmosphere this evening we also had Tons of Rock doing their best to disrupt from the stage in the background and providing us with a steady stream of festival goers crossing the field throughout the match.
Maybe it was the weather that did it, but Aliens had a squad of 12 turn up on good time, and we even had few couple of spectators to cheer us on.
Lost the toss and were put in to bowl.
For once, Aliens were on the ball from the get-go, with active and tight fielding. Exemplified by a great catch by the Tom at long on (unclear whether it was his hands or his stomach that did the trick in the end, but the team grateful for all the beers he had put away last weekend either way). He followed that up with an impressive direct hit from the same position shortly thereafter. Happy with his newfound accuracy, Tom continued to send the bails flying with throws from the field. Irrespective of whether the batsman was actually running still or already comfortably back.
Be that as it may, the combination of decent fielding and bowling was delivering for Aliens this evening. Intel ahead of the match had suggested Vålerenga struggled with spin, but seam seemed to pose just a great a challenge for them, and wickets quickly began to fall. Vålerenga were down 28-3 after just 4 overs. The pressure continued and by the end of the 11th they were 6 down for 65. Wickets for Benan (three), Pratik, Denis and two for debutant Bradley.
Stubborn resistance from Vålerenga did damage to Aliens’ fine work, however, not least flurry of sixes from Samiullah Nazakhei towards the end (including 3 sixes in the 18th), leaving us a target of 145.
Aliens’ batting started well, typified by Avra driving the very first ball to cover and by Patrik adding 12 runs in the third over. Unfortunately, the innings rather peaked with that third over. Three overs later, having added just five more runs, Aliens were three wickets down; Avra caught in the fourth and both Patrik and Dave caught in the fifth.
Benan and Milton tried to pick the pace up, but the loss of the first three had slowed things down considerably and Aliens fell behind. It was not until Denis came in that the run rate started to pick up a little again. After a number of attempted stumpings Denis’ luck eventually ran out – ironically being given out when he was in, having survived a previous stumping attempt when he actually had been out. Milton and Denis had added 22 and 24 respectively, and Simon, Tom and Damon in turn tried to keep the momentum up, but it wasn’t to be.
Brekke-Nærstad’s one over with the ball created a final opportunity to add some much needed runs to the total, with a couple of odd no balls (one of which saw Damon swinging the bat one handed with a fully stretched arm to “chase” the ball and connect to hit a four). But the damage had, unfortunately, already been done by then. While the total crept into treble figures Aliens never managed to catch up and lost the match.