Ryan Rickelton in action Ryan Rickelton in action. Picture: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix
Johannesburg — For someone who doesn’t want to make the national selectors look foolish, Ryan Rickelton is doing an incredibly bad job.
Wednesday night saw him notch up a fourth century in his last seven innings for the DP World (Central Gauteng) Lions — two of those in the first class competition — and included in the three innings’ he didn’t get to a hundred, is a 99, that came last Sunday against the Rocks.
It is a stunning run of form but one that actually stretches back over three seasons, with the 26-year-old producing six domestic first class centuries in that period and three One-Day hundreds, two of which have come in this season’s competition.
Rickelton told IOL Sport that he is motivated by his omission from the Proteas squad which is preparing for the first Test against Australia that starts on Saturday. His form certainly makes the selectors look silly for not including him, especially given South Africa’s batting problems over the last few years. “As a player, no one’s out there to make anyone look foolish, but if you find yourself in a situation where you can really stamp your authority as a person and player on whoever it may be, a lot of players use that as motivation,” said Rickelton.
Rickelton didn’t score off the first nine balls he faced on Wednesday — but he still reached his half-century off 30 balls. At times it looked like he was taking the mickey. Poor Kerwin Mungroo had nowhere to bowl in the 10th over with Rickelton striking three consecutive boundaries through the off-side — the first behind square, then one just in front of square and the third driven through extra cover.
When the North West bowlers straightened their lines, they were clipped through the leg side, if they pitched the ball up they were driven and when they bowled short they got pulled.
Only the canny left-arm spinner, Senuran Muthusamy, was able to rein him in and for a while, as he neared a hundred, Rickelton lost his shape and began trying to hit the ball too hard.
A six off a “free hit” got him rolling again, and he reached his century with another thunderous drive through extra cover. Another four and a six followed before he was superbly caught by a diving Dwaine Pretorius at long on. He faced only 75 balls and hit 12 fours and four sixes, and besides the man himself, right now the only people happy about all this are his Lions teammates who’ve grown accustomed to giving him a standing ovation every week and the Mumbai Indians Cape Town franchise, who signed him for R1-million in the SA 20 League.
North West’s run chase never got going. Sisanda Magala picked up 5/31 while there were two outstanding moments in the field from the home team; Josh Richards took a diving catch at midwicket to end Grant Mokoena’s stay at the crease and Mitchell van Buuren took a better one at point, diving to his right and claiming a one handed stunner to dismiss Muthusamy.
The Lions earned their third win in a row to move into second place on One-Day Cup log. They face the Knights on Friday night at the Wanderers in their next match.
IOL Sport
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