Ricky battered by Bushey 2nd XI

Two teams entered the fray at Park Road, but only one emerged with pride intact. And unfortunately it wasn’t the Ricky 2nd team. It didn’t even start well with 2 players missing at the start and what looked like a belter of a wicket. And when Obaid and Shaid put on 50 for the first wicket, it was clear this was going to be a big struggle. Ricky had already tried 5 other bowlers when Bilal enticed both openers into making batting errors. Bobby then got the dangerous Kumar out LBW and at 120/3 off 30 overs things can have gone either way. But with the game in the balance, a sudden downpour left the bowlers with a ball of soap and a slippery outfield. Within 6 overs the chance for Ricky had gone and Mustapha and Mahmood put on 80 for the next wicket and enabled Bushey to reach a monumental 258 for 7. Billy took 2-34. And the Ricky players were fed up with chasing leather.

After the usual altercation at tea (it wouldn’t be a League game without it), Ricky started brightly before Paul was run out on 5. Bobby, Majid, Maz and Kamran all followed soon afterwards, from careless shots, or missing straight balls. 55/5 and Ricky were dead and buried. Only Ben Alnutt played with any level of capability and the remaining batsmen became a procession as Ricky went from 76/7 to 77 all out with Mustafa taking 3-1. Maz 15, Extras 14 and Ben 13 were the only scores of any note.

The good news is that we know we can play 10 times better than that. And also we have more luck to come. This is not a poor Ricky team and no team will go through the whole season without losing a game. So we have got our loss out of the way now. We can and will do better