u15: Chorleywood crushed by all powerful Ricky

In a somewhat one-sided affair, Chorleywood came to Ricky on a hot streak but found themselves toasted by a Ricky bowling and batting display that was just scorchio! The Chorleywood batting line up is strong and so Ricky needed to be on top form and so it proved with Harvey Blackwell (3rd over) and Tahir Hussain (4th over) reduced Chorleywood's top order to rags on 11/3. Tahir in particular was hsotile and brutal and even Charlie, on the back of a century earlier on in the week for his school, was castled middle stump as he sought to give himself room against a very fast ball.

Then young Yusuf, 3 years younger than every Chorleywood batsmen, delivered the telling blows with 2 wickets in 5 balls for no runs, and Chorleywood were 20/5. That the middle and lower order did well to fight back showed just what strength in depth the opposition had Oliver and Jack putting on a 50 partnership. But always loomed the spectre of the quicker boys returning and so it was a pleasant surprise when Rahim was given his first over of the season and took two wickets in the last over of the innings. 106 a decent score - time would tell.

Bilal Hasan opened the batting with Yash and the runs started to flow in a torrent. Bilal has been a revelation moving to opener from no6 this season. It was a surprise when Yash went in the 3rd over for 9 (after two boundaries in a row) but this just brought the Colossus of Ricky (Tahir) to the crease. The first over he faced went for 22 as he sent the unfortunate Luke into orbit. And it didnt get any better for Luke as his 3rd over went for 14 as Bilal and Tahir tucked in. Tahir's innings was over far too soon as he crashed a ball with such power at deep long off that it carried the fielder over the boundary with it. 43 Not Out and a joy to watch.

Tom Riddle was unlucky to get out to a good catch, but this only brought ex-County rep Harvey to the crease and in 8 balls he had secured the win with an astonishing 5.2 overs still to go.

Some of the scoring rates of the Ricky boys (just take a look at the statistics page) are astonishing this year and the victory was as good as it gets. Some sympathy must be extended to the Chorleywood team who came full of confidence but just happened to find their local rivals in devastating form on the day. As always - if you get a chance to see these boys play, you should make every effort to. It's Cricket straight from the IPL to your team.