Rickmansworth 2nd 180 v Kasey Harris 185

Starting the match with 2 of last years 1st XI squad, so a strong looking Rickmansworth side, Stefan chose to bowl first and was rewarded with a tight over from Ali Raza was followed up by a wicket first ball from Joe Monk. Better still it was a player who had scored 130 in his game last week. Ali Raza took the second wicket and shortly afterwards Fizzy took the third. BBCC were struggling to score runs whilst Kasey Harris held up one end.

Smithy entered the fray and bowled an incredible spell. His first eight overs saw Botany Bay score just five runs, with three maidens and one wicket, caught well by Fred behind the sticks. Still Harris was there, taking the strike when he could and playing cautiously. As he admitted, if he got out then the batting could collapse.

John’s last two overs were expensive by his standards going for three and four respectively leaving him with 1-12 off ten overs! A superb display of bowling from our veteran wily fox.

At the end of the 29th over Botany Bay were 87-5 and remarkably 64 of those runs had come from the bat of Harris. To this point his innings was flawless and patient. A trap was set to get him out hooking and Rohan induced the shot. Sadly the chance went down. Still the bowling was tight and after 37 overs, Botany Bay were on 115-5.

What happened next was remarkable - Harris went on to score another 90 runs off the next 13 overs! On his own and the team scored at 11 runs an over. He finished on 184* taking apart the Rickmansworth attack at will. It was a fine innings by a young man who has played at the highest levels, including County Cricket at 16. In a way, keeping him below 200 was an achievement.

Of the bowlers, Ali Raza & Fizzy Ahmed get great credit for their two wickets a piece at a very reasonable economy rate, alongside John. Joe, Bobby, Zaf & Rohan gave their all, but the lad was on a different level.

With a target of 258 to chase Ricky lost Waheed and Rohan for 3 apiece. Not a great start when cool heads and calm nerves were needed. Stefan was joined by Bobby with the score on 30. After 20 overs, the Ricky score was 65 and almost on a par with where BBCC were at the same stage. However Stefan snicked one to the keeper from the tame off spin of Hunt for 34 which meant Bobby and Fizzy had to build again. Bobby grafted his way to 40, with a few great shots, the usual array of boundaries, and early on in his innings a rarely seen 2. At drinks Ricky were ahead of BTCC at the same stage, with wickets in hand, needed 166 runs at just over 6 an over. But we failed to kick-on due to some great fielding positions by BTCC. They knew their ground. Bobby got 40, Billy smashed a quick 11 but was gone too soon, then Ali Raza a quick 8, all supporting Fizzy in a determined mood, but by this time Rickmansworth were chasing batting points only.

A flurry of fours from Fizzy took him towards what would have been a well deserved 50, however he was unfortunately out for 49. The Ricky tail didn’t really wag too much and Harris added three fortunate wickets to his haul of runs. By the time Joe was last man out we had at least reached 180 to secure 8 batting points for an overall haul of 13 points.

Not the start we would have wanted by any means, but some really good individual performances, unfortunately overshadowed by a magnificent innings by Kasey Harris. Without him, and extras, Botany Bay would have scored just 54. Rarely has a game been so affected by one player.