vs Vålerenga Super League (Div 2) Match 3
When: 1st July, 2023
Where: Ekeberg 3
Vålerenga 141/10 28.4/40 ov
Aliens 142/7 29.2/40 ov
Aliens won by 3 Wickets
Great contest against Vålerenga. Sushil and Pradeesh hold their nerve to bring us home.
Vålerenga won the toss and elected to bat for our Super League clash at Ekeberg 3. Given the dry spring and early summer the typically slow outfield was slightly quicker than normal.
Sushil opened the Aliens wicket account in just the second over courtesy of a catch by Erik. Vålerenga captain and the remaining opener then teamed up for a threatening partnership of 40 before a great catch by Basil of Eriks bowling broke things open. A period of tight bowling brought some rewards 2 overs later with Erik pressuring the set batsmen to play a loose shot and getting his man bowled. 2 wickets for just one run had Aliens in the box seat.
Another Vålerenga partnership of 40 odd again had them looking at a decent total but Benan took 2 quick wickets to have Vålerenga 5-94 after 21 overs. The middle, lower order Vålerenga came out aggressive hitting some boundaries but thankfully for us some good catching and our bowlers keeping their nerve wickets kept falling.
We managed to dismiss Vålerenga for 141. Benan lead the way taking 4-31. Damon and Erik taking 2, Dave and Sushil with 1 each.
This is a chaseable score but Ekeberg 3 can be tricky and Vålerenga typically field and bowl well so there was still work to be done.
The Aliens opening pair of Dennis and Pratik started well finding the boundary regularly. They managed to put on a partnership of 68 off 14 overs- above the asking rate.
This is where problems struck for Aliens though, with 4 Aliens managing to get themselves bowled out by decent but not overly threatening bowling. These 4 wickets coming for only 11 runs had some nerves kick in.
Sushil came in and combined with Pratik who had been watching with horror at the carnage happening at the other end. These two managed to steady the ship and weather the pressure from fired up Vålerenga to put on 49 runs together. This very much calmed the Aliens dugout.
Pratik was however runout at the end of the 27th over for 52 with Aliens still needing another 14 runs off the remaining 18 balls.
The very next ball our new batsmen Sudesh was bowled first ball (Damon being the other golden duck of the innings). The nerves were back.
Our 8th wicket pair however kept their cool and worked the ball around for some simple singles. This with a pair of wides in the 29th over left Aliens needing 5 from the last over.
Sushil boshed a ball over cover for 3, then Pradeesh cracked a 2 to give Aliens the win with 4 balls to spare.
This game was another example of our much improved fielding (compared to last season and early this year) along with good discipline with the ball. Aliens only bowling 5 wides compared to Vålerengas 15 made a big difference in the end.
We do however have to work out how to avoid losing wickets in clumps. None of the shots in this crappy few overs for us was particularly bad. So its not an intent issue, perhaps just an issue of being focused when coming to the wicket. In anycase it could be a case of the Streisand effect where talking about the problem could make it worse.
All in all though, an exciting win for Aliens.