Run Fest at Ricky School for 4ths

Rickmanworth's 4th Team's friendly match vs Batchworth at Ricky school astro pitch was an interesting show. Ricky fielded only 7 players for this friendly which was dominated by youngsters and new club members.

Batchworth won the toss and decided to bat first. Prasanth and Chandru opened the bowling with a steady flow of overs with limited runs. Chandru broke the opening partnership with a wicket and it was a brilliant catch by young Oliver behind the stumps. Batchworth batters Yusuf and Seb cemented a brilliant partnership and batted through 30 overs. Bowlers Prasanth, Neil, Viren, Ali Akbar all went expensive & wicketless in their spells. Seb went on to score 122 and retired.

Then Batchworth batter was joined by a known face Adeel Usman in the center. Maddy had the breakthrough by dismissing Adeel early followed by Chandru restricting Yusuf to 76 runs. Prasanth took up wicket keeping bringing in young Oliver to bowl which turned out to be a good decision as Oliver took 2 brilliant wickets both caught and bowled. Maddy then followed to clear the rest of the players taking 2 wickets. Batchworth set a mammoth target of 254 of Ricky 4s to chase in 40 overs.

Oliver and loaned batter Luke Parry started the innings. Oliver looked strong with some brilliant shots scoring boundaries in style. Oliver scored 27 quick runs before getting out bowled. Luke was joined by Neil and did not stay long and came back without scoring. Young Ali followed the same pattern. Luke scored 14 runs for Ricky before getting out caught. At this point Ricky was 49/4 in 9 overs. Prasanth and Maddy stayed and built a solid partnership taking the score to 166 in 25 overs making a win almost possible. Maddy scored a brilliant 72 with some great shots to boundary and strike rotation.

Viren joined Prasanth but went quick without scoring. Chandru and Prasanth continued to score some runs and accelerated the score beyond 200 by 30 overs. Chandru scored a brilliant quick 27. Prasanth got out with an unexpected hit wicket wrapping the team score to 207.

Ricky did not lose the match without a good fight. But lessons learned will be implemented in coming games.