Ricky 4ths win to set the record straight

Rickmansworth 4s travelled to Old Camdenians and were pleasantly surprised to be told that the game would be on the main square. The skipper won the toss for the second week in a row and elected to bat. It was not a difficult decision on what looked a very decent pitch. Jaimin and Eugene opened the batting with both getting off the mark with boundaries. Jaimin (4) and Eugene (4) then fell in quick succession with Jaimin caught at cover and Eugene caught and bowled by an excellent one handed catch. The wickets bought Neil and Matt to the crease and Matt was into his stride quickly as the bowlers allowed him to put his trade mark pull shot to good use against some wayward bowling. The innings momentum picked up as one over was dispatched for 24. Neil (10) however lost his wicket as he was bowled trying to emulate Matt’s hitting.

Gajan dismissal for 1 bought Ben to the crease with the innings teetering on 83/4. Ben quickly found his scoring opportunities as the bowlers began to wilt and Matt moved seamlessly past 50 with a pull shot through midwicket for 4. Once passed 50 Matt continued to be aggressive with anything loose and respected the good balls. There were plenty of boundary balls on offer and he put those away with regularity and Ben dispatching a huge six back over the bowler’s head. During the course of the partnership Matt bought up his second league hundred. Ben (30) also looked set for a big score but fell to a short wide ball outside off stump which he hit to cover to end an 86 run partnership. Ken joined Matt and supported him well before edging a sharp chance to slip for 8. This bought the skipper to the crease and with Matt they were able to take the score past 200 and then 250. Matt continued to punish the bowling and was now hitting decent deliveries to the boundary. A swept 6 taken from middle stump off the opening bowler was particularly memorable. Matt raised his bat again as he went past 150. The innings closed with Matt on 176 not out and the skipper on 30 not out and a score of 284/6 on the board.

Rushil and Neil opened the bowling and it was not too long before both openers were back in the hutch. First Neil (7-0-49-1) had Sharif caught by Matt and then Rushil bowled Nagul. The number 3 Shahzaib on his debut looked to take on the bowling whilst the number 4 dropped anchor at the other end. With Shahzaib scoring quite freely the skipper decided that pace off the ball was the route to take and introduced the spin twins Ben (9-1-45-0) and Matt (9-1-31-0). They succeeded in slowing down the scoring rate as they bowled 18 tight overs between them without reward due to a couple of opportunities going to ground. Jon and Jaimin then came on with the plan that they would bowl the 5th bowler’s allocation between them. Jaimin (6-0-28-1) broke the century stand when he bowled the number 4 for a patient 36. Both bowlers repaid the skipper’s faith with tidy spells. Jon (5-0-27-0) should have been rewarded with a caught behind for his first league wicket however the umpire failed to detect a thick edge through to Eugene. Rushil then came back on to bowl his final 3 overs and picked up three wickets as Old Camdenians tried to score the 14 runs an over needed for the last 6 overs. Rushil (9-0-67-4) narrowly missed out on a hat-trick in the final over as he had Shahzaib caught by Eugene off a top edge for a well made 115 and Kerchieve holed out at long off to Jaimin. The hat-trick ball was then nicked between keeper and a wide slip. Ultimately Old Camdenians finished on 252/6 from their 45 overs.

A truly memorable game with Matt hitting 10 sixes and numerous fours in his 176 not out. It was hard work in the field with only ten men and only three regular bowlers in the team. Ben, Jon and Jaimin put their hands up to bowl and did a superb job which made the difference between winning and losing. Let’s make sure that we back up this performance with a win next week against Redbourne.