Ricky 1st XI make it 10 in a row with convincing win over cockfosters

On another extremely hot Saturday it promised to be a tough day of cricket for both Rickmansworth and Cockfosters. The atmosphere was building, mainly because of the festival in the park beside the ground, yet the prospect of a tenth win in a row for Ricky was also just as exciting.

After losing the toss on what was very much a wicket we wanted to bat on first, an even bigger shift would be needed from the Ricky boys.

An opening partnership of 20 was looking rather threatening until Toq cleaned the opening batsmen up for 4. He was joined by Majid in a very solid opening spell which helped clean up the second opener, leaving Cockfosters 40-2. From this point on, a team effort in the field really helped carry Ricky through the innings. Almost everyone chipped in with a wicket or a useful contribution to restricting the total.

Just before the second drinks break, 2 early wickets broke from Neel Kalhan on the back of some wayward bowling, he got a crucial wicket in Herbert, who looked solid on 31 before being dismissed.

From here on in, only one really troubled the scorebook with a quick fire 32 which Cookie saw to as well as cleaning up the tail end, finishing with figures of 3 for 25. Very solid figures, especially with a stint at wicket keeping for the other half of the game. Well done!!

Whilst Ricky could admit, our fielding could have been much better, with Taz leading from example with 3 catches, we went into our batting innings with our heads held high needing 180 to win.

Our batting however did not get off to the best start with Shami dismissed for 2 (LBW) and Ibby and Bobby each scoring 7 & 8. This left Ricky in a difficult situation losing 3 early wickets. With the lower order starting to get their pads out of their bags in a bit of worry, young Tahir stepped up to form a partnership of 100 with anchor Taz, who was still going strong at the other end. Both Tahir and Taz were looking very solid and comfortable at the crease and eventually both reached half centuries in quick succession of each other.

Tahir hit a 6 to bring up his fifty, that was brilliantly fielded by the opponent, but he took it into the concrete and couldn’t keep it within the boundary. Tahir distracted next ball and the partnership broken, but Taz was already set by this point and Ricky looked a lot more comfortable.

Toq picked up where his brother left off, with a 6! From here on in the result looked very settled and Taz cruised to an 82 N.O supported by Tahir (50) and Toq (18*). With a shaky start to the batting innings, Ricky cruised to a tenth win in a row in as little as 25 overs. Well done lads!!