Ickenham Show Their Class as Ricky 2s Stumble

On what looked and played like a great pitch, Adeel won the toss and sent out Graham and Lekshay to bat, a rusty opening attack from Ickenham enabled Lekshay to show a sign of intent alongside Graham who grinded away at the Ickenham opening bowing pair. This produced a steady start from Ricky, until Graham edged behind for 8, Lekshay and new batsman Andy Bird continued to show their intentions, scoring at a decent rate and increasing the score to 30-1 after 7 overs. Andy went after one too many swings of the bat and had his castle knocked over. Now 30-2, Vishal supported Lekshay, as he continued to try and work away at the opening bowlers. Vishal played some nice-looking shots however he departed for 10, with the score at 61-3.

This steady start for Rickmansworth, on a good pitch and with batting to come a large total was on the cards, however this is a Rickmansworth team, all too familiar with collapses. Lekshay now joined by the returning Ali Asghar probed away against Ickenham's spin attack and this was to be the beginning of the end for Ricky, Ali had his off stump disturbed by a ripper, back in the pavilion with 4 to his name, the next 4 wickets quickly fell for only 7 runs, as Lekshay, Asim, Waheed and Adeel were treated to good balls from the Ickenham china-man spinner. Leaving Ronesh to try and add more to the score with only youngsters Callum and Ollie for support. Ronesh played well for 15 Not Out, as Callum (LBW) and Ollie (Bowled) rounded up the innings.

An underwhelming performance with the bat, however there was still hope from the Rickmansworth Bowling attack as it had plenty to offer. Asim and Callum opened the bowling in the hope to get some early wickets and make a miracle happen with the ball. Asim kept at his line and length although unrewardingly kept it together, at the other end Callum managed to pick up an early wicket. Waheed and Ronesh replaced the openers in the search for wickets. Ronesh managed to pick up 2 wickets, which in the end were just consolations. Lekshay and Ali came on in the hope they could cause some drama, however with not enough runs on the board, Ickenham cruised to a 7 Wicket Victory.

Reflecting on another sub-par performance with the bat which left the bowlers with it all to do on a pitch that was easily 150+, credit goes to Ickenham's Harris who ripped through the middle and lower order. An early lesson for the season had as we head into the final pre-season match.