Vålerenga vs Asker
It was another gloomy start to the day for Asker. Overnight rain had left standing water on the ground and the players spend the first couple of hours getting the water out, fixing the water sopper and convincing the umpires to stay on. At the end of it, the umpires saw no reason to delay the match further and a reduced 20 overs a-side match was underway.
Vålerenga won the toss and put Asker in to bat. Tara and Israr opened the batting in what were excellent conditions for bowling with a heavy outfield and plenty of moisture in the air and the pitch. Things got off to a bad start for Asker when Israr, inspired by recent Brendon McCullum innings, walked down the pitch to his first ball and nicked one through to the keeper. Khayyam walked out at number 3 and joined Tara. They began cautiously running quick singles and hitting the odd boundary. Batting started to look easy again, but the wet outfield meant that the ball refused to go the boundary. Khayyam figured he had enough of this and hit a six and then a couple of one bounce 4s to set things rolling. Asker were comfortably placed at 64/1 after 10 overs. Khayyam and Tara started accelerating further. Khayyam hit a massive six in the 13th over and soon got to a well made 50. In the last few overs, Vålerenga bowlers made a good comeback and denied Asker the width and length to hit the big shots. Khayyam, Tara got out in the 18th over. Qasim, Hashir, Ali and Ravi made brief appearances and Asker ended up at 137 off their alloted 20 overs, maybe 20 runs short of what they looked like getting at one stage, but still a very defendable score.
Hamza and Qasim opened the bowling for Asker and started off in excellent fashion. Hamza bowled with plenty of zip and repeatedly beat the batsmen. Qasim swung the ball both ways and kept making the batsmen playing down the wrong line. Qasim had his man in the 4th over with Hashir taking a fine catch nehind the wickets. Israr was introduced replacing Hamza and he started off in very economical fashion. He maintained a very tight line and length, giving nothing away to the batsmen and making them take all the risks. He bowled 4 overs on the trot and finished with impressive figures of 1/15.
At this point, the match was in Asker's favour with the score at 54 from 11 overs. However the ground started drying out and Vålerenga's batsmen took full advantage. Brekke in particular was in superb touch, threading his drives through a packed off-side field while playing conventional cricket shots. In between, an innocuous throw hit Hashir on the face resulting in a bloody mouth and a check-up from Asker's physio, Tara. Hashir soon walked off and Asker were left with 10 fielders. After resuming, Tara, Mirza, Harpreet and Adnan tried their best to keep Brekke off strike, but it was not meant to be. Adnan had two catches dropped off his bowling in his over, one dropped catch almost resulting in Asker's second injury; two of their fielders colliding when trying to catch a miscued skier. Qasim came back for his last over, and almost had his man, but the ball did not dislodge the bail after hitting the wickets. It finally came down to the final over with 5 runs needed. The field was called in. The first ball resulted in a skier with a tough chance being put down at mid-on and resulting in 2 runs. With 3 to get from 5 balls, the batsman decided to hit the winning shot. And gave a catch to Qasim at mid-off. With 3 needed off 4, 2 singles were taken and a dot ball was bowled. The final equation came down to one run off a ball. The whole field was called in, and after plenty of discussions and delibrations, the final ball was bowled to Brekke who threw his bat at a full ball, giving a tough chance to Tara. The ball went through and Vålerenga completed the run and a famous victory.
The scorecard can be found here.