Ricky 4ths wins a low scoring thriller

England going through heavy dose of heat wave for past few weeks. But this Saturday was bit different, strong wind blowing and fake storm cooling the country little bit. With this weather condition Rickmanworth 4XI won the toss and elected to bat first.

Ricky opened the batting with left (Neil) right (Ubaid) combination. Great batting showcased bringing steady flow of runs. Batsmen quickly realized they are playing on one of the strangest pitches they have ever played. Ubaid kept the momentum and kept the runs coming with boundaries included. Neil’s (7) wicket was a prize to a good leg spin ending a steady 1st wicket partnership of 32. Matt Atkins came #3. He was quick in running between wickets and providing good company to Ubaid, hit couple of classy boundaries but lost his wicket to a bouncy ball caught behind for 8. Skipper Prasanth joined the center with Ubaid, he was lucky to be dropped at 0 but was not too lucky to continue got out for 3. Team score started to slow down as wickets falling quickly. Ubaid’s got out for a good spin delivery for 34. Young Faraz scored quick 10 runs. Rushil (5), Harvey and Bilal’s wickets fell in quick succession. George and Hanuman tried a quick single which proved costly losing Hanu run out. George and Callum added another 10 runs to the score taking the total to 99 in 26 overs.

After tea, Ricky 4s were totally confident of defending the low total. We had Matt Atkins stepping up to keep the wickets for the first time. Hanuman and Harvey kept it tight for the opponents and Harvey cleared the openers by disturbing the stumps and an amazing caught behind by Matt Atkins.

Great fielding, wicket keeping and tight bowling made first 10 overs a struggle for Hatfield keeping their score low as 23. George and Prasanth started the second spell when George was struggling to get his line gave away free runs on extras and boundaries. Prasanth on the other end struggled the same but was lucky to get a wicket with a full toss ball. George got his line and length back and bowled tight overs managing to get 2 wickets in the same over. One with a high up catch by Prasanth and one super caught behind by Matt.
Ricky getting into good position and adding pressure on Hatfield. It was time to add more pressure with the young Callum and Bilal starting the spin spells. Callum was unlucky to get wickets but kept the pressure on. Rushil took a brilliant catch at leg slip position of Bilal.
It was time to clear up the tail enders to skipper decided to bring Hanuman and Harvey back into attack but switching the ends. Hanuman almost took hattrick clearing the tail ender and adding 3 wickets to his name.

Great contribution from every one and absolutely tremendous team spirit made us defend a total of 99.