Rickmansworth 4ths beat Chorleywood 4ths in final over

The 4s entertained local rivals Chorleywood at Park Road. Richard won the toss and elected to have a bowl. Chorleywood made a steady if unspectacular start before the two openers fell bowled and LBW to Hanuman and Joe respectively. Some lusty blows from the number 4 moved the score along before he fell to Harvey’s mystery spin. The batmen going back and watching the ball spin away from his bat and crash into off stump. Harvey then removed the Chorleywood skipper with a ball that made the finest contact with the off stump and removed a bail. Ricky were now well and truly into the middle order

Yogesh then bowled the dangerous Mick Rose with a quicker ball before inducing the stubborn Sherali to try and hit over extra cover with Scott taking a fine catch. The skipper then threw the ball to Jon Wood and was rewarded with a fine spell of bowling in which he took 3 wickets for 10 runs in his four overs including 2 wickets in 2 balls. The returning Hanuman then took the final wicket with a full straight ball which thudded into Lad’s pad in front of middle stump. The Chorleywood innings closed on 119 all out off 39 overs. A respectable score on the top table and one that would take some getting.

The Chorleywood opening bowlers had noted the difficulty of scoring off slow straight bowling and set out to frustrate the Ricky openers. Sean Lindsay was the beneficiary picking up Prasanth for 6 off a top edge which was caught by the keeper and then Yogesh (4) bowled. 2 of Rickys best batsman were back in the hutch. Hanuman was promoted up the order after his 50 against the same opposition last year, and he and Jaimin batted carefully and put away any bad balls and rebuilt the innings in sensible fashion taking Ricky halfway to the target at drinks. 60/2 after 20.

Having added 40 runs for the third wicket Hanuman (32) and then Jaimin (21) fell in quick succession followed by Scott LBW. And still 50 runs needed. It was time for heroes to emerge. The skipper joined Harvey and they set about nudging the score closer to the target with a plan of setting up a late assault. 3 an over would probably be enough. The bowling remained tight and there were few loose deliveries to hit. Harvey played with a nice straight bat with the skipper trying to get the ball away at the other end where possible. With the target approaching Harvey fell LBW to Sean Lindsay for a patient but vital 11. A partnership of 40 had brought Ricky to within single figures of a win. But overs were running out. Ken had little time to play himself in but managed to hit the ball over long off and mid wicket for a two and a three. With 4 required off the last 5 balls the skipper crashed the ball to the midwicket boundary for the winning runs to much jubilation amongst the home supporters. .

It was a most enjoyable game to play in although rather tense at the end. The spirit in the side was excellent with key contributions from a number of players.

A repeat performance next week against West Herts will hopefully see the same result and begin to cement Ricky's place in mid-table.