Ricky U14's Win again

After promotion from the 2nd Division to the 1st Division this year, Ricky U14's had every right to feel nervous taking on Hemel Hempstead in their first game. And batting first things looked to be turning into a disaster with Eesa, Dhir and Tahir all back in the hutch and just 6 on the board. But out strode Captain Fantastic, Raunak Khanduja, and along with Harvey Blackwell he set about turning the tide of the match. Once the Hemel County bowlers were finished, Raunak plundered runs at will, taking 24 off one over and scoring 8 boundaries and one towering straight six. Harvey and he put on 56 runs in 7 overs before Harvey was bowled for 12 and Raunak had to retire not out on 43. Luckily Bilal Hassan was able to martial the tail and through careful shot selection and determined running his 12, combined with the other batsmen's 4 between them, was enough to see Ricky to a par score of 91 all out.

Having scored 47% of his teams runs, Raunak them martialled his fielders brilliantly with Tahir and Harvey a potent opening bowling pair. Harvey struck with his first ball, a Yorker to dismiss Pore, and tahir struck in his second to get the opposing captain Grayson for 4. Wheeler and Hodgins then built a partnership of 25, but the Ricky bowling stayed tight and runs were at a premium. Divy Sharma then trapped Wheeler into hitting the ball to Tahir and the screws began to tighten. The runs slowed down and wickets fell at regular intervals. The scoring rate reached a required 36 off 6 overs and then a maiden from Eesa and a 2 overs from Mustafa for 2 runs effectively killed off the contest. County batsman Hodgins finally started to play some shots but it was too late and when he departed for 29 to a fine catch in the deep by Toby Byng, the game was up.

Tahir returned to grab 2 wickets in 2 balls to wrap up the tail, with figures of 3-11 and Raunak himself took 2-10.

It was another fine win for the glorious U14's whose next challenge is at Chorleywood on Sunday at 2pm.