Another thrilling last-gasp victory for unbeaten 2nd XI

Visiting Southgate Adelaide II's is always a pleasure, and especially when 9 places in the table separated both sides at the beginning of the day. However it was Southgate who started the brighter with Tatakis and James putting on 50 for the first wicket before Brett caught a good catch diving forwards off Bilal. Keeper Luke Gilbert then rode his luck as the score raced past 100, mostly in edges down to 3td man. Amit Pau then got one to straighten to dismiss Tatakis, and Ricky then just stuck to Plan A and tried to keep the game as tight as possible.

Ricky captain Blackwell was certainly helped by the mostly accurate bowling of the bowlers he had at his disposal, except for a curiously high amount of wides. Jeremy Riddleston took first change and bowled 6 good overs of away swing, before Naeem Khan produced probably the best spell with in-swing causing a lot of problems for the batsmen. Both Amit and Brett finished with figures of 1-27 from their 10 overs, which showed their control, on a pitch where there was no sideways movement at all. Waheed also picked up a wicket (1-25) with a mixture of slower balls and darts. A final flurry saw Southgate put on 30 runs in the final 5 overs to finish on 197. A target that was eminently gettable on one of the best League wickets.

Once again Ricky started strong - a key element of their success so far this year - with Glazier and Blackwell putting on 42 for the first wicket in 8 overs. Glazier departed for 17 and then Kasser came in to cleanly whip and club the ball around for a swift 25. Blackwell fell straight afterwards for 23, but the middle-order engine-room of Ricky once again came to the fore. Kamran Shah (45) performed miracles again, holding the chase together and with Jeremy Riddleston (21) the two of them put on 68 in those vital middle overs. Even though both got out with 50 still needed, Waheed Mahroof also did his usual role of mixing attack and defence to good effect. With slow bowling at both ends, he simply waited for bad balls to hit. His cause wasn't helped with Naeem and Bilal both departing for ducks, in quick succession, but in Amit Pau he found a 'sticker' who was prepared to run himself into the ground for the cause.

Keeping the chase at 4 an over, with fielders on the boundaries, wasn't easy, but some thrilling running and great placement saw the target come every closer. Indeed, so skilled were they both that when Waheed was finally out for a match winning 28, just 4 runs were needed to win, and 2 overs to go. Brett hit his first ball for a 2 and then his eyes lit up when the nervous bowler dropped his last ball short to enable Brett to thrash it to the cover boundary for a well deserved, and hard-fought, victory.

Never before has a Ricky team won it's first 4 games outright in a League season. And yet the 2nd XI have managed to do this despite losing players to injury and the 1st XI. However both the regulars and the stand-in's have every week performed at a level never before attained. This is a special group, and a special team, and long may the success, we hope, continue.