Risinghurst Cricket Club

Recap

By Sourav Mondal

A must-win match for Risinghurst 1 against Witney Swifts 2 to top the league table ended with big smiles on Risi players as well as captain Rakesh after winning the match comfortably beating the opponent by 214 runs. This win (and a loss by table-toppers Radley) brought Risinghurst to the top of the table – having lost only one match by 1 run and some matches abandoned due to rain, the top spot was well-deseerved by Risinghurst – luck favours the brave! as they say. Risi kept fighting against all the circumstances and proved themselves with quality cricket.

Captain Martin dropped back himself due to an injury and Rakesh took all the responsibilities on his shoulder as a captain first time in the season. It was a cloudy but dry day, after a quick chat with his team members Rakesh went for the toss, won the toss and selected to bat first to put some score board pressure on the opponent. In Martin’s absence as an opening batsman, captain Rakesh had to shuffle his batting order as it was also a good opportunity for the team to check their batsmen before the big Steve-Dixon final match on the next Sunday. So, he sent his middle order batsmen Lucky and Romi to open and to give a great start. They didn’t disappoint the captain and team. What a wonderful start they had! ball was nicely coming to their bat on this dry surface and the outfield was so quick. They took this opportunity and made an outstanding 120-run partnership with both individual’s fifty. But unfortunately they got out to some juicy full toss and an excellent catch. All the next batsmen came to keep the run-rate high and put a big total on the score board. They started well hitting fours and couple of sixes. Sam got a chance to come in middle order to show his class! He amazed everyone with a high strike-rate and lots of fours and couple of sixes with 48 runs not out – there was no doubt in picking him as a player of the match later – it was an outstanding knock. Some quick wickets fall in the tail end restricted them to score 306 but it was a very big total in this league.

After a quick lunch break the second innings started with Risi’s star opening bowlers Rakesh and Govind with big threats to Witney batsman. As usual they got couple of early wickets. It was a good score to check the bowlers before final. So, Rakesh decided to bring Sourav from other side with Govind. He astonished everyone with a stunning out swing delivery and clean bowled Witney’s best batsmen in his very first over. In the meantime some outstanding fielding efforts by Sourav, stand-in wicket keeper Satish (in place of Saurabh) and players saved a few boundaries. The highlight of the day was the last ball of Govind’s spell where he so confident that he started appealing for an LBW as soon as he released the ball, only to find that the batsman could not have middled it better – everyone enjoyed the funny side of it. First time this season captain brought another all-rounder wicket-keeper Mansoor to bowl who surprised everyone with his perfection! At last Risi’s lone mistrey spinner JT came and took all the remaining 3 wickets, and finished the match in style restricting Witney Swifts to 70.

Risinghurst is now at the top of the table, where they belong.