To Rain or Not to Rain?

On a promising Saturday afternoon, a riding high 4th XI buoyed by their previous week’s performance turned up to play a lowly positioned Chipperfield.

After losing the toss, Rickmansworth were sent into bat. The team welcomed back new father Phil and Robin who were both duly sent in to open the innings. The Chipperfield opening bowlers started well, bowling a good line and length on what could be mistaken as an astro-turf pitch. The bowling persistence paid off with Robin, looking increasingly assured at the crease, bowled out for 5 and Anuj following shortly after having misjudged a leg side glance to send the ball sky high for first slip to get around and take a good catch. In came Darshan to steady the innings, but wickets kept falling at the other end with Phil out LBW playing across the line and Hanuman caught after a rain break to a sharp catch at short cover. In came Nasser at No.6 – having been rightly promoted after his eye-catching cameos in recent weeks. He took some time to settle, but once he did normal proceedings started with a flurry of boundaries and clean hitting that we’ve become accustomed to. However, he was losing partners at the other end with Yusuf caught and bowled and Neil bowled by an exceptional in-swinging delivery. Nasser shepherded the Ricky innings to 99 all out where he top scored 3 short of a well-deserved half century caught in the deep at 47.

After another long rain delay, Chipperfield started their innings. Hanuman and Nasser opened the bowling. Both kept the line tight and got some good bounce, but the first 10 overs only yielded 1 wicket. With the drizzle breaking into a full pelt, the teams went off for another rain break and it looked this time the game may been called off. The weather improved and Chipperfield, smelling blood, did their best to get the teams out again despite some protests. Given the latest rain break the target was reduced to 76 off 30 overs. By this point Chipperfield were ahead of the chase and bowling contributions from Yusuf, Anuj, Callum and Robin could not stop a disappointing loss.

The game was interrupted by a couple of rain breaks which didn’t help matters, but Ricky knew they fell short of the high standards they set themselves in previous weeks. We take this on the chin and move on.