A massive virtual crowd was on hand for game number 7 of the Riding Mill dice cricket virtual tour of Australia. Conditions at the virtual Willowbrook Reserve were perfect for dice cricket with some early morning cloud cover likely to assist the bowlers.

Riding Mill skipper Andy Watson although having some reservations having sent Kissing Point in last week in Sydney only to have them pile on 170 decided to send the home side in hoping the dukes dice may provide the assistance his opening bowlers have been looking for.

The move proved to be a master stroke and despite skipper Tarek Moughanie looking in fine touch, wickets were tumbling at the other end with Ben Smith picking up Pearson LBW for 0 and Lambeth falling to a good catch behind the stumps from Liam James for 2.

Lance Mallinson was then into the action removing Jimmy Campbell who was stumped for 3 and Ben Walker who departed next ball caught by Ali Raza for a duck. It was fair to say that the visitors were feeling right at home in the virtual conditions.

Chinthaka Jayasinghe joined skipper Tarek Moughanie at the crease and were building a partnership when Riding Mill skipper Andy Watson found something special to trap Moughanie in front for a magnificent 29 off just 8 deliveries with the final ball of his over.

After some further consolidation from the hosts Cam Longstaff was able to become the third bowler of the morning to claim a double breakthrough, this time the two marquee players Chinthaka Jayasinghe and Danny Law departing. Chinthaka’s innings was the shining light for the home side with his 36 coming off just 12 deliveries before he was stumped by Liam James. While Danny Law was on his way thanks to a neat return catch from Longstaff off his own bowling to see Law back to the virtual pavilion for six off two.

When Aly Hall had Kosteas out to a good catch from Lance Mallinson and Chris Neilson caught by Kev Frazer for 6 off 2 Riding Mill were well on top with the Warriors primary objective now to bat out the remaining overs with the score at 9-102.

A thirty run stand from Craig Byron who finished 17 not out and Aaron Smillie who was last to go, LBW to Scott Dickson for 24 off 9 saw the Westmeadows total reach 132 but not able to bat out their allotment of ten overs.

Riding Mill in their chase took the go hard or go home approach with a blistering start from openers Dickson and Burns. Dickson was adjudged LBW in the second over with a good seed from Neilson seeing him on his way for 15 from 4. The runs kept flowing however with the agricultural approach from Burns making it very hard to set a field with balls landing in unconventional places.

Dave Cox continued his fine tour having made back to back half centuries in the two previous fixtures providing excellent support to Burns who was on a mission bringing up his first half century on virtual Australian soil.

When Burns was plumb in front off the bowling of Chinthaka Jayasinghe for 66, the damage was already done. Dave Cox and Liam James finishing the job seeing the tourists home with 8 wickets in hand.

Thanks to the generosity of the hosts, Rob Burns will take home a magnificent Westmeadows hoodie as a permanent reminder to his team mates of one of the better innings you will see in a game of dice cricket.

Riding Mill will continue their tour on the weekend against St Kelvin’s Old Boys before playing Parkdale next week in the final game of the Melbourne leg of the tour.

The team then head across to Perth to play Bayswater-Morley before a final fixture that was announced at the start of the week to take place in virtual Hong Kong.

Thanks again to Westmeadows Warriors Cricket Club for being such wonderful hosts for game 7 of the Riding Mill Cricket Club dice cricket virtual tour of Australia.