Rickmansworth came up against Eversholt 2nd XI in the returning fixture at home.
Majid Khan won the toss and elected to bat first.Without regular openers Taz or Maz, Ibby Hanif was promoted alongside young gun Tahir Hussain.
Rickmansworth got off to a terrible start losing Ibby to a terrible decision, caught behind high off his thigh pad!!!
This brought in the returning Ricky Legend Kamber Hussain at the crease in the third over of the game.
Tahir Hussain edged to point with the score only on one, matters got worse when Bobby edged to slip first ball. He really is a second team player, as he continually gets exposed at this level. This brought young gun Toqeer Hussain to the crease, who along with Kamber took the score on to 50.
Unfortunately, Rickmansworth continued to lose wickets throughout the innings and Rickmansworth stumbled to a less than respectable 100 all out. This was truly a terrible score considering the line-up that Rickmansworth had and the fact that we had destroyed the opposition in the corresponding fixture.
Majid Khan rallied the troops instructing them to win it for the returning skipper who was due back in the country the same day, so without a break in lunch play resumed. Majid bowled their opener with a searing Yorker in the first over of the game to raise hopes of a victory, however for the next 5 overs the wickets dried up and runs started to rack up.
However, the introduction of Kamber Hussain led to a change of fortunes, bowling with pace, albeit with a larger waistline since marriage, Kamber took 3 wickets. Wickets had now started to tumble, including 2 amazing runouts, one by Tahir and Brett.
A change of ends brought Majid another wicket, at this stage Eversholt needed 40 runs but only two wickets. Enter Naghman Latif, producing the ball of the day to win the match, a ripping and dipping off spinner to win the game. All in all, it was a game that Rickmansworth won with hard work in the field and a firepower filled bowling line up.
Quote from skipper after the game ‘We won this for Maz, avoided a potential banana skin, but we are looking to end this season as champions’!!
Written by 2nd team perennial run scorer Wahaab Choudhry (Bob)