Ricky 2 for 2 against Bentley Heath in 2016

Rickmansworth 1XI started the second half of the season with more optimism in the game against Bentley Heath. The team set a target of 200 runs every game for the rest of the season and to achieve that the day started with some early morning nets. Both batsmen and the bowlers had a good session to kick off the day.

Captain Marty Jaynes won the toss and decided to bat on a batsmen friendly looking pitch. The new opening pair of Vishwas Rathi and Ajay Thakur started steadily but their stand ended with 24 on the board after 8 overs. With Ajay departing, Rory Bennett entered the scene and looked as comfortable as ever on the pitch. With Vish’s innings coming to an end in the 12th over and 34 on the board, it was again down to Ricky’s two in-form batsmen this season to drive the innings. Marty and Rory put on a partnership of 52 to take the score to 86 after 24 overs. It was then Marty who got out LBW to some fine spin bowling. At 86/3 Rickmansworth were still not in a comfortable position and all eyes were on Rory to continue for as long as he could.

Jez Riddleston, playing his second game for the 1s, went in and showcased his strong middle order batting. Rory on the other end was showing his own batting skills and while doing that scored another magnificent half century. Jez and Rory steered the innings towards a big total and put on 87 for the 4th wicket. Jez’s innings came to an end in the 47th over after a solid 41 to his name. Rory stayed not out on 85 and Rickmansworth used their quota of 53 overs to put up a total of 197 for the loss of 6 wickets. The pre-match target of 200 runs was missed by 3 runs but the team remained confident of a strong performance in the second half of the match.

Bentley Heath, who lost to Rickmansworth by 6 runs in the first game of the season, would have hoped for a better start to their run chase than they got. Rory, starting the proceedings with the ball after his gem of an batting innings, and showed what all-rounders are made of. A brilliant delivery got the first Bentley Heath wicket with the 3rd ball of the innings sending them onto the back foot straight away. Jason Phillipson and Rory gave the perfect start to bowling and with Jason picking up his first wicket in the 6th over, Bentley Heath were already struggling. The opening bowlers only gave away a few runs and Bentley Heath was reduced to 38/3 after 11 overs, Rory picking up another one before finishing his first spell.

Still a long way to go in the innings for both teams, Marty brought in the changes and Phil Riddleston came on to bowl from the pavilion end, with Marc Robinson from the other end to keep the pressure on. It was Phil’s 4th over which really stamped Ricky foot on the match. The dangerous looking partnership of 39 for the 4th wicket, was broken by a terrific delivery from Phil. More than the delivery, it was the celebration from the bowler that caught everyone’s eyes or ears you could say. It was a well deserved prize for a continuous effort. A second wicket in the same over, sent the stumps flying, and Bentley Heath soon had half of their team back in the pavilion with 69 on the board. Phil continued to bowl well and picked 3 wickets in total. Oz Ali was then brought on the get in some quick overs and was also rewarded for some quality bowling, picking up 2 more Bentley Heath wickets.

Bentley Heath reached the three figures in the 27th over with 8 wickets down. However it was a bit of a hard work for Rickmansworth bowlers to pick up the 9th wicket. An experienced number 10 with no intention of scoring any runs just played out maiden after maiden. In the end it was just too much to get and too many overs to play out for a draw. Curly came back for second spell to wrap things up and picked up the 9th wicket to take Rickmansworth even closer to a well-deserved victory. Raunak Khanduja was then asked to bowl to finish things off and indeed he did. A straight ball completely missed by the batsmen and was hit on the pads, the umpire had no doubts before raising his finger.

An all-round performance from Rickmansworth earned them a win by 72 runs, their 4th of the season, taking them up a place in the league table.

(Submitted by Vishwas Rathi)