Aberdeen Evening Cricket League

Down at the Links on Wednesday The Sun in Aberdeen missed the notice that it was practically summer! It was a cloudy and windy evening at the Links where Strikers met Nexen in the AECL League. The game was reduced to 16 overs due to the very real possibility of already fading light. Strikers won the toss and decided to bat first. Bijil and Mrudhul wreaked havoc in the opening overs scoring 54 in the first 5 overs. Sharath bearing the brunt for most of it. Mrudhul was the first to go with an excellent runout in a surprising display of agile fielding. It wasnt a day for fast bowling as the dependable Vijay in his last over and Jamil in his first also leaked runs. No 3 Jeby was the chief assaulter on this occasion. Thankfully the retirement rule came to Nexen's rescue again and Jeby bowed out to a well scored 30 amidst applause from both teams. The introduction of Mark did the trick for Nexen when Bijil was caught at the square leg boundary by Sharath who held to another similar catch of the bowling of Robin. Both Nexen stars showing their class after a rusty comeback in the previous games. The introduction of slow bowling inspired the mighty Jamil to turn his arm over to spin and got himself a wicket and a run-out in his last two overs. The tail was upon us but Strikers weren't a team who gave up easily. Captain Sonu played some streaky shots behind square and through mid-on to score 3 welcome boundaries. The introduction of youngster Sachin brought another boundary for Strikers. The exciting bit of the match upto this point was a fantastically simple catch dropped by Robin. The score poised at 131 for 7 in 15 overs. The last over proved beneficial to Nexen when departing captain Amol took a lucky hat-trick with the last 3 batsmen out bowled. Strikers finished their innings all out for 131.

Strikers - Jeby - 30*, Bijil - 27*; Nexen - Amol - 3/11, Jamil, Abhinav, Mark and Robin each took 1 wicket, 2 run outs, one retired out

Nexen opened with the trusted pair of Abhinav and Sri. Abhinav opened the account with a boundary through covers against Saju but disaster struck when Sri had to retire hurt after hurting his knee. Sharath went in at no 3 hoping to absolve his sins while bowling but ended up skying one to the cover boundary of the bowling of Noby where youngster Sachin held on for an excellent catch. It wasn't to be Sharath's day. Kache fell lbw to another straighter one from Noby. Nexen's scoring rate was well below six at this point with 3 top order batsmen out of contention. The Strikers bowling and fielding showed why they were a force to reckon in Grade 3 and 4 in the ACA league. The newly promoted Jamil was in no mood to hang around and struck four sixes and one four on his way to a magnificent 31. Uday joined his partner Jamil after scoring four fours and 2 sixes making 35. Pehlaj and Robin went in hoping to finish the innings for Nexen. Pehlaj struck some beautiful blows, caressing the ball and cajoling runs. Robin showed everyone why he should be opening the innings with Alistair Cook in the next Ashes series with some textbook forward defensive shots. After a brief reminder from the boundary that it was actually a T20 and not a test match Robin played a flourishing cover drive only to be dropped at short cover. More comedy ensued when Pehlaj and Robin ran for a second run which wasn't there and Robin was run out by some 6 yards. Mark went in to support Pehlaj who scored three fours and two sixes on his way to 30 and won the game for Nexen with a towering six! Nexen finished 133 for 6.

aqeel 27 May 2016 - 11:50