If ever a game can turn on a sixpence then this was the perfect example of exactly that. Put in on the only artificial track in Hertfordshire that plays like a slow May grass wicket, and with an outfield that was perhaps a mm or 2 on the long side, Rickys' opening pair struggled against the accuracy of Hemel's bowlers whilst maintaining their wickets - which is part of the objective. At 25/1 in the 11th, Paul (12) couldnt get over mid-off but Ricky had batting to spare so an acceleration was expected. What happened was the opposite as 14 year old county prodigy, Carter, had Vishal stumped and then bowled Raz, Prasanth and Anuj (16) in the space of three overs to have figures of 4 wickets for 2 runs. Ricky were now 32/5 and the players were ignoring desperate calls for updates from Sohail....

And then the game turned after Manpreet (10) and Amaan were out, and the score on 73/7 with just 8 overs to go. Raz's forecast of '140' will win the game, was now hovering around the 110 mark. But Vijay had other ideas and with a willing colleague in Keshav he set about an onslaught that the returning opening bowlers could do nothing about. Coldwell bowled his first 6 overs for 7 runs - his next 12 balls went for 32 ! Carter also conceeded 26 runs in 2 overs as Vijay piled on 62 sumptuous, glorious runs in a partnership of 70 with Keshav. Keshav hit a massive 6 and the Hemel players were stunned. And, Raz got his 140 after-all.

The Ricky bowlers bowled superbly and kept the run rate down to just 2.6 in the first 20 overs, After that the rate required began to climb above 6 and yet still the steady Hemel batters didnt go for the runs. Keshav was superb with 7-2-10-2 and Nasser also bowled 8 overs for 21. Sadly Raz bowled one of the overs that will stick in the mind for all the wrong reasons, and 11 ball over that went for 16. With Manny injured this meant VJ had to bowl 8 overs of his own which only went for 34 runs which saved the day. Smart catches by Vishal (2) one of which was a one-handed screamer, Keshav, Paul and Anuj all slowed the scoring and needing 22 off the last 2 overs, Hemel ended up 6 runs short.

By this time Captain Hailey had stopped pacing the boundary and was cheering with everyone else. A wonder win, thanks in the main to a team effort supporting Vijay the magician.