4ths stumble when the peak is in sight

With the club putting out a 5th team, brimming with fresh talent, the 4th XI players were under pressure to perform to keep their places. But sadly fluffed their lines as they missed the chance to top the table.

Prasanth won the toss and decided to bat first on the top square. Opening pair Harish and Kannadasan faced some fierce fast bowling and one of the opening bowlers was quick and swinging well. Kannadasan had a life when the keeper dropped him at 0. But that did not continue as he was given out LBW before he could score any runs. Harish was then joined by Prasanth. Lack of calling between the players meant Prasanth was run out for 1. Ricky were 15 for 2 in the first 6 overs. Neil joined Harish and they both set a rhythm and started scoring runs steadily. Harish played some couple of boundaries whilst Neil was rotating strike. Before the pair could build a solid partnership Harish got caught and out for 19. Neil was joined by club veteran Matthew Atkins who had earlier scored 179 n.o against the same team. Matt and Neil faced some real good bowling attacks as the bowlers were accurate with no pace and some good turns. Matt departed soon for 7.

Young Alec Maggi joined the anchor man Neil. Alec played some beautiful shots including a boundary before getting out caught. Alec scored some quick 12 runs and Ricky were going nowhere at 50/4 in 16 overs. Jack was next to join Neil to add quick 14 runs to the board and was bowled by a low bounce ball. Neil finally departed for 19 runs spread over 19 agonising overs. Oliver and Chandru came back to the pavilion soon as well. This was a poor batting performance with Ricky 93/9 in 31 overs. Callum and young Sam played well and quick running between wickets added another 18 runs to make a total of 111. Nelson couldnt have been prouder.

Ricky started their bowling attack with Chandru and Sam. Both bowled right and Sam started with a maiden over but did not get any wickets. Callum and Jack started a new spell and Jack took a fantastic C&B of the opening batter in his 3rd ball. Callum bowled well keeping the run rate slow adding pressure to the batters to take a second run, a perfect throw from Chandru and well collected by Oliver caused the other opening batter to be run out. At that time Old Camdenians were 35/2 in 13 overs. Two new batters in the middle settled quickly by scoring 1 and 2s keeping the score ticking. And that was as good as it got as Old Camdenians out played Ricky 4s in all departments and cruised to victory keeping them at top of the table instead of Ricky.

It was a good effort from Ricky 4th team but not enough runs on the board to defend. More lessons learnt and there is confidence the team will bounce back with a win in the next match.