Come Rain or Shine - in the same day...

Something a little unusual happened at the weekend. It rained on Saturday! I know this is Britain so that statement shouldn't be in any way unexpected, but so far this cricket season we've had nothing but blue skies and sun. Well, maybe there's been a few clouds and galeforce winds - but it's been totally dry in the first four games. Fortunately the rain was fleeting, not even enough to cause the players to leave the pitch, before the sunshine returned.

So what did we do with this mixed weather bag? We went to Skipton and won the toss, that's what. And having chosen to bat first despite the overnight rain threatening to slow the outfield early on, Riddlesden decided to have a bat and try to build a pressure building target for their hosts to chase.

A careful first over was followed by a barnstorming three boundaries 15 runs second over and the game was underway. Things were going well until the end of the 4th when Kamran was the first wicket to fall, lbw to Skipton's star bowler I mentioned in the last blog. The very next ball, Naveed was out lbw too and 23 - 2 looked a little worrying. Aftab began his innings in fine form, whilst Shanny dug in a little and prepared for a long innings. Soon both players were scoring freely though and the run-rate increased to almost a run per ball. Eventually Aftab fell for 43 off just 31 balls, helped by taking 20 from one 'star' bowler over (sorry, I may have jinxed you last week). The partnership was worth 70 when it was broken and the score had charged on to 93-3. Ehsan didn't last long, but Gully came out to build another partnership with Shanny taking the score past 100 and securing the first batting point. Shanny remained strong once Gully was out, with a good knock from Akeel (30) providing yet another decent partnership seeing the 150 come up too. Arshad arrived to see the innings out but alas Shanny finally perished on a magnificent 92. I don't know the details but as there were only 8 balls remaining I suspect there was an element of trying to reach the century with not much time to do it and if so, I'm not blaming him for that. Highest score so far for Riddlesden this year and worthy of applause. Arshad finished not out on 29 as the innings concluded on 219-7, an intimidating score.

Chasing this sort of score was always going to be difficult for a team that seems to be a better bowling side than batting from the stats. It becomes far more difficult when Zullie and Arfan bowl in such a miserly fashion that after five overs the score is only 8-1. Arfan (2-32) picked up the first couple of wickets in his first four overs for just 9 runs. Zullie joined the action after three maidens in five overs by taking three wickets in the next couple. At 32-5 after 13 overs, the game was effectively over barring a superhero effort from the Skipton CI tail. Zullie picked up another wicket to finish with 4-36 from his 12 overs. By this point Aftab had decided that miserly bowling was too generous so had stopped the opposition scoring at all. Given the state of the game, Gully made the decision to use a few other bowlers to keep their eye in - not a bad ploy as you don't want to suddenly need to call on someone who hasn't bowled in weeks. Akeel and Kamran had a couple of overs each. Ibrahim joined Arshad for a set of 5 each - both only conceding 7 runs and Ibrahim keeping up his impressive form of picking up a quick wicket. Aftab returned to mop things up to finish with 2-6, with Ibrahim picking up a run-out too. Skipton CI were dismissed for 113 giving Riddlesden a 113 run win and another maximum 20 point haul.

Back in Riddlesden, Eldwick produced a nicely constructed run chase to overhaul Airedale's 138-9 with 8 balls to spare (Stephen Timperly was stand in captain for the day and took 6 wickets and top scored with 42 - show off)

This leaves Riddlesden top of the division on 99 points, and Eldwick second on 84. This week Riddlesden host Bradley who have may some familiar faces in their lineup. Elswick are away to a struggling Bingley Congs. Will both teams still be top for the Jubilee weekend clash? Here's hoping!